Fight  For  Your  Lire ! 


BY 

BEN   HANFORD 

Recording   Some   Activities  or 
Labor  Agitator 


NEW  YORK 
WlLSHIRE   BOOK  CO. 

200  WILLIAM  ST. 
1909 


To  the  Jimmie  Higginses, 
and   Those   Choice  Spirits 
of  This  Earth   Who  Did 
or  Do 
or  Shall 
Call  One  Another  "Comrade" 


Copyright,    1909,   by 

WILSHIRE  BOOK  COMPANY 
New   York 


Biographical  Sketch  of  Ben  Hanford 
By  JOSHUA  WANHOPE. 

MOST  people  are  familiar  with  the  story  of 
the  little  boy  who,  asked  if  his  father  was 
a  Christian,  replied  that  he  was,  but  that 
'Tie  wasn't  working  at  it."  Some  professing  So- 
cialists might  be  similarly  described,  but  fortu- 
nately for  the  cause  there  are  thousands  of  notable 
exceptions.  And  perhaps  among  them  all,  for  in- 
domitable, tireless  energy  and  record  of  service, 
no  name  stands  higher  than  that  of  Ben  Hanford, 
the  virile  author  of  this  volume.  A  sketch  of  his 
activities,  therefore,  well  may  form  the  contents 
of  this  introduction. 

Hanford  was  born  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  in  1861. 
His  mother  died  in  his  infancy,  and  some  years 
later  his  father  married  Frances  Jane  Thompson, 
of  Bangor,  Maine.  She  is  a  woman  of  rich  and 
cultivated  mind  and  rare  and  beautiful  character, 
and  Hanford  declares  his  debt  to  her  is  incalcu- 
lable. Under  her  instruction  he  acquired  a  taste 
for  reading  and  study,  and  to  her  influence  he 
attributes  most  of  whatever  may  be  good  in  his 
character. 

Having  learned  the  printer's  trade  in  the  office 


1.626839   3 


4  FIGHT  FOB  YOUR  LIFE ! 

of  the  Marshalltown  (Iowa)  "Republican,"  Han- 
ford  went  in  1879  to  Chicago,  and  on  February 
26  of  that  year  became  a  member  of  Chicago  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  16.  Since  then  he  has  never 
been  a  day  without  his  card  of  membership  in  the 
International  Typographical  Union.  For  many 
years  he  has  been  a  member  of  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6 — "Big  Six" — and  for  thirty 
years  he  has  been  a  militant  and  active  worker  in 
the  trade-union  movement. 

Sixteen  years  ago  he  became  a  student  of  Social- 
ist economics  and  philosophy  under  that  gifted  and 
wonderful  teacher,  Fred  Long,  of  Philadelphia, 
also  a  printer.  Since  then  the  Socialist  movement 
has  had  no  more  indefatigable  and  persistent 
champion  than  Ben  Hanford. 

He  has  been  three  times  nominated  as  Socialist 
candidate  for  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York 
— in  1898  being  the  nominee  of  the  Socialist  Labor 
Party,  and  in  1900  and  1902  he  headed  the  New 
York  State  ticket  for  the  Socialist  Party.  In 
1901  he  was  chosen  as  Socialist  Party  candidate 
for  Mayor  of  New  York  City.  In  1904  and  again 
in  1908  he  was  nominated  by  the  Socialist  Party 
for  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  in  both 
campaigns  the  national  ticket  of  the  Party  having 
been  Debs  and  Hanford. 

His  activity  in  both  the  Socialist  and  trade-union 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  5 

movements  has  never  ceased.  He  generally  put  in 
three  months  of  each  year  on  the  lecture  platform 
and  in  making  political  addresses  before  the  an- 
nual election,  but  the  day  after  the  polls  closed 
saw  Hanf ord  back  in  the  printing  office  working 
at  his  trade.  In  addition  to  his  activity  as  a 
speaker,  Hanford  has  been  a  constant  contributor 
to  the  labor  press,  and  leaflets  and  pamphlets  from 
his  pen  have  been  circulated  by  millions.  When 
the  New  York  "Sun"  locked  out  its  Union  printers 
in  1899,  Hanford  wrote  much  of  the  literature  of 
"Big  Six,"  boycotting  that  paper,  and  openly 
defied  Judge  Bookstaver's  injunction  against  him- 
self and  other  members  of  the  Printers'  Union. 

As  a  public  speaker  Hanford  has  always  heen 
recognized  as  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  effect- 
ive on  the  Socialist  platform.  He  possesses  elo- 
quence, fluency,  a  power  of  piquant  and  effective 
illustration  and  a  wide  range  of  economic  knowl- 
edge, with  the  ability  to  explain  seemingly  intricate 
problems  in  clear  and  simple  terms.  The  reader 
of  this  volume  will  find  many  striking  examples 
of  this  faculty  in  its  pages.  In  addition  to  these 
qualifications,  Hanford  is  an  exceedingly  formid- 
able champion  in  debate,  and  has  on  many  occa- 
sions completely  outclassed  the  ahlest  apologists  of 
capitalism  that  could  be  found  to  meet  him. 

Though  never  a  strong  man  physically,  Hanford 


6  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

possesses  a  nervous  power  and  endurance  which 
enabled  him  for  many  years  to  undertake  and  suc- 
cessfully carry  out  speaking  campaigns  which  were 
beyond  the  strength  of  men  his  physical  superiors. 
But  for  several  years  past  his  health  has  been  so 
broken  that  he  has  been  forced  for  a  long  time  (and 
it  is  feared  permanently)  to  abandon  all  public 
speaking.  While  his  physical  sufferings  have  been 
and  still  are  most  painful,  he  still  employs  his  pen 
in  the  Great  Cause.  It  has  always  been  his  pro- 
found belief  that  his  work  for  Socialism  has  given 
him  a  stronger  hold  on  life,  and  that  had  it  not 
been  for  the  inspiration  and  strength  derived  from 
working  for  the  Cause,  he  would  have  long  since 
been  dead  or  a  hopeless  invalid.  "Socialism  is 
Life"  has  been  Hanford's  motto,  and  this  point  of 
vie*/  has  undoubtedly  influenced  him  in  selecting 
the  title  under  which  the  present  work  appears. 

Though  these  collected  writings  of  this  Socialist 
veteran  have  a  high  economic  value  as  Socialist 
propaganda,  a  value  which  has  indeed  been  prompt- 
ly recognized  in  the  Socialist  movement,  as  testified 
by  the  wide  circulation  many  of  them  have  enjoyed, 
they  are  perhaps  as  valuable  in  another  respect,  as 
displaying  in  the  most  marked  degree  the  indom- 
itable spirit,  the  unbounded  courage,  faith  and 
hope  that  makes  the  Socialist  movement  of  the 
world  invincible  and  irresistible. 


Preface 

IN  1904,  when  I  was  for  the  first  time  made 
the  Socialist  Party  candidate  for  Vice-Pres- 
ident of  the  United  States,  Hermon  F.  Titus, 
in  presenting  my  name  to  the  Convention,  spoke 
of  my  "sacrifices"  for  the  Socialist  movement.  In 
accepting  the  nomination,  I  stated  that  it  was  lit- 
tle that  I  had  been  able  to  do  for  Socialism,  but 
that  it  had  done  wonderful  (almost  miraculous) 
things  for  me.  I  even  declared  (and  correctly) 
that  work  in  the  Socialist  Movement  had  then 
prolonged  my  life  some  years,  and  that  to  that 
Movement  I  owed  everything. 

In  the  five  years  since  that  time  my  obligation 
to  the  Labor  Movement  has  been  multiplied  mani- 
fold. Most  of  the  United  States  Comrades  know 
of  my  broken  health  and  acute  physical  suffering. 
A  few  Comrades  know  how  heavy  was  the  hand 
of  personal  and  spiritual  affliction  that  was  laid 
upon  me.  Nothing  is  clearer  to  my  mental  vision 
than  that  I  could  not  have  lived  those  years  ex- 
cept for  the  beautiful  love  and  stalwart  support 
of  my  Comrades  the  world  over,  and  the  strength 
which  I  derived  from  the  hope  of  the  return  of 
such  a.  measure  of  health  as  would  once  more  en- 


8  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

able  me  to  actively  work  in  the  Great  Cause.    Not 
only  do  I  owe  my  life  to  the  Socialist  Movement. 

Until  I  joined  that  Movement  I  had  never  lived. 

In  this  work  I  have  made  no  effort  to  make 
an  exposition  of  Socialism.  I  have  simply  tried 
to  show  certain  phases  of  Capitalism  in  such  a 
way  that  all  might  understand.  At  the  same  time 
I  believe  that  I  have  had  a  measure  of  success  in 
voicing  the  Spirit  of  the  Socialist  Movement  as 
understood  and  felt  by  one  who  all  his  life  has 
lived  in  and  been  a  part  of  the  Class  Struggle. 

If  this  publication  shall  cause  any  one  to  join 
the  Socialist  Movement,  the  author  will  be  amply 
repaid.  Next  to  Socialism,  the  grandest  and  best 
thing  in  this  world  is  Working  for  Socialism. 

B.  H. 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  January,  1909. 


Contents 

BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH  OF  BEN   HANFORD. 

By  Joshua  Wanhope 3 

PREFACE  7 

THE  JIMMIE  HIGGINSES 11 

THE  GOSPEL  OF  THRIFT;  or,  How  MUCH 
MONEY  DID  JOHNNY  SAVE? 14 

THE  WILD  IRISHMAN .'.... 19 

LABOR  PRODUCES  ALL  WEALTH 23 

CHICAGO.  Address  in  Garrick  Theatre,  Chi- 
cago, May  3,  1908 27 

THERE  AIN'T  GOIN'  TO  BE  No  SERVANT  GIRLS     33 

I.  MOTHER  JONES  DEPORTED 37 

II.  CAPITALISM'S  CONFESSION 43 

"SEE  THE  BEAUTIFUL  HOUSES  AT  PRIMERO  !" 
A  True  Story  of  the  Trinidad  Coal  Strike 
(1904)  47 

DON'T  BE  A  TOMATO 51 

THE  JAMES  BOYS;  or,  MODERN  LAW  AND 
ORDER  60 

"WE  PROPOSE  TO  RUN  OUR  OWN  BUSINESS 
IN  OUR  OWN  WAY  !" . .  66 


10  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

THE  FREE  AMERICAN  WORKINGMAN  AND  His 

SACRED  RIGHT  TO  WORK 71 

$1,318— $6,194— $120,000,000,000  76 

SOCIALIST    CONVENTION    SPEECH.     Address 
Before  the  New  York  City  Convention, 

May  30,  1905 81 

DEBS  86 

OUR  "IMPARTIAL"  JUDICIARY. 88 

His  DIGNIFIED  NOBS 94 

YOUR  UNCLE  Is  DEAD 98 

I.  WHERE  ARE  WE? 103 

II.  How  TO  ROB  A  MAN  WHO  Is  BROKE  . .  108 

THE  GRAND  ARMY 115 

FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE  !..                             ,  121 


The  Jimmie  Higginses 

A  COMRADE  who  shall  be  called  Jimmie 
Higgins  because  that  is  not  his  name,  and 
who  shall  be  styled  a  painter  for  the  very 
good  reason  that  he  is  not  a  painter,  has  perhaps 
had  a  greater  influence  in  keeping  me  keyed  up  to 
my  work  in  the  labor  movement  than  any  other 
person. 

Jimmie  Higgins  is  neither  broad-shouldered 
nor  thick-chested.  He  is  neither  pretty  nor  strong. 
A  little,  thin,  weak,  pale-faced  chap.  A  poor  dys- 
peptic, asthmatic  epileptic.  But  he  is  strong 
enough  to  support  a  mother  with  equal  physical 
disabilities.  Strong  enough  to  put  in  ten  years 
of  unrecognized  and  unexcelled  service  to  the  cause 
of  Socialism. 

What  did  he  do  ?    Everything. 

He  has  made  more  Socialist  speeches  than  any 
man  in  America.  Not  that  he  did  the  talking; 
but  he  carried  the  platform  on  his  bent  shoulders 
when  the  platform  committee  failed  to  be  on  hand. 

Then  he  hustled  around  to  another  branch  and 
got  their  platform  out.  Then  he  got  a  glass  of 
water  for  "the  speaker."  That  same  evening  or 
the  day  before  he  had  distributed  handbills  adver- 
tising the  meeting. 


12  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

Previously  he  had  informed  his  branch  as  to 
"the  best  corner"  in  the  district  for  drawing  a 
crowd.  Then  he  distributed  leaflets  at  the  meet- 
ing, and  helped  to  take  the  platform  down  and 
carry  it  back  to  headquarters,  and  got  subscribers 
for  Socialist  papers. 

The  next  day  the  same,  and  so  on  all  through 
the  campaign,  and  one  campaign  after  another. 
When  he  had  a  job,  which  was  none  too  often,  for 
Jimmie  was  not  an  extra  good  workman  and  was 
always  one  of  the  first  to  be  laid  off,  he  would  dis- 
tribute Socialist  papers  among  his  fellows  during 
the  noon  hour  or  take  a  run  down  to  the  gate  of 
some  factory  and  give  out  Socialist  leaflets  to  the 
employees  who  came  out  to  lunch. 

What  did  he  do?  Jimmie  Higgins  did  every- 
thing, anything.  Whatever  was  to  be  done, 
THAT  was  Jimmie's  job. 

First  to  do  his  own  work;  then  the  work  of 
those  who  had  become  wearied  or  negligent. 
Jimmie  Higgins  couldn't  sing,  nor  dance,  nor  tell 
a  story — but  he  could  DO  the  thing  to  be  done. 

Be  you,  reader,  ever  so  great,  you  nor  any  other 
shall  ever  do  more  than  that.  Jimmie  Higgins 
had  no  riches,  but  out  of  his  poverty  he  always 
gave  something,  his  all;  be  you,  reader,  ever  so 
wealthy  and  likewise  generous,  you  shall  never 
give  more  than  that. 


THE  JIMMIE  HIGGINSES  13 

Jimmie  Higgins  never  had  a  front  seat  on  the 
platform;  he  never  knew  the  tonic  of  applause 
nor  the  inspiration  of  opposition;  he  never  was 
seen  in  the  foreground  of  the  picture. 

But  he  had  erected  the  platform  and  painted 
the  picture;  through  his  hard,  disagreeable  and 
thankless  toil  it  had  come  to  pass  that  liberty  was 
brewing  and  things  were  doing. 

Jimmie  Higgins.  How  shall  we  pay,  how  re- 
ward this  man?  What  gold,  what  laurels  shall 
be  his? 

There's  just  one  way,  reader,  that  you  and  I 
can  "make  good"  with  Jimmie  Higgins  and  the 
likes  of  him.  That  way  is  to  be  like  him. 

Take  a  fresh  start  and  never  let  go. 

Think  how  great  his  work,  and  he  has  so  little 
to  do  with.  How  little  ours  in  proportion  to  our 
strength. 

I  know  some  grand  men  and  women  in  the 
Socialist  movement.  But  in  high  self-sacrifice,  in 
matchless  fidelity  to  truth,  I  shall  never  meet  a 
greater  man  than  Jimmie  Higgins. 

And  many  a  branch  has  one  of  him. 

And  may  they  have  more  of  him. 


To  that  man,  and  to  all  who  would  be  worthy 
to  call  him  "Comrade"  this  book  is  humbly  and 
affectionately  dedicated. 


The  Gospel  of  Thrift ;  or,  How 
Much  Money  Did  Johnny  Save? 

NOW,  I  am  going  to  tell  a  story  and  ask  a 
question. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  lived  a  Con- 
necticut Yankee  who  was  a  very  smart  man.  Any  of 
you  who  have  known  any  Connecticut  Yankees  will 
not  doubt  their  smartness.  This  particular  Yank 
had  a  son,  and  like  a  dutiful  parent  he  did  his  best 
to  bring  up  his  son  in  the  way  he  should  go.  It 
was  his  desire  that  his  boy  should  grow  into  an- 
other very  smart  man  like  himself,  so  that  as  he 
went  along  life's  journey  he  might  be  able  to  get  a 
shade  the  best  of  every  other  man's  son — of  course, 
none  of  the  other  Connecticut  Yankees  were  teach- 
ing their  sons  to  get  the  best  of  his  son. 

Among  other  virtues  the  Yank  sought  to  de- 
velop in  his  son  was  that  of  thrift — he  desired  that 
the  boy  should  be  frugal  and  saving.  One  evening 
just  before  supper  the  old  Yank  said  to  his  boy, 
said  he : 

"Johnny,  Johnny,  why  don't  you  save  your 
money  ?" 

"Save  my  money?"  replied  Johnny.  "How  can 
I  save  my  money  when  I  hain't  got  no  money  ?" 


THE   GOSPEL  OF  THRIFT  15 

"Well,  Johnny,  I'll  give  you  some  money,  and 
then  you  can  save  it,"  said  the  old  man. 

"All  right,  pop,  you  give  me  the  dough,  and  I'll 
save  it  all  right." 

"Well,  I'll  give  it  to  you,  Johnny.  But  you'll 
first  have  to  do  something  for  it;  that  is,  you'll 
have  to  earn  it." 

"All  right,  pop.     What'll  I  have  to  do  ?" 

"Well,  now,  Johnny,  I'll  tell  you.  You  go  with- 
out your  supper  to-night,  and  I'll  give  you  a  nickel, 
and  you  can  save  the  nickel." 

Johnny  was  mighty  hungry,  hut  he  wanted  the 
nickel  badly,  thinking  of  the  fun  he  would  have 
spending  it,  and  so  he  spoke  up  bravely :  "All  right, 
pop.  .  Gimme  the  nick,  and  I'll  save  it." 

So  Johnny  went  without  his  supper,  went  to  bed 
hungry,  but  he  had  the  nickel  safely  put  away,  and 
the  unpleasant  dreams  caused  by  the  painful  knots 
in  his  empty  little  insides  were  from  time  to  time 
relieved  by  visions  of  himself  spending  his  hard- 
earned  money. 

At  last  morning  came,  and  Johnny,  with  his 
nickel  in  his  pocket,  and  with  an  awful  gnawing  in 
his  middle,  came  downstairs  to  breakfast. 

"Good  morning,  Johnny,"  said  his  father. 

"Morning,  dad,"  said  Johnny. 

"Hungry,  Johnny  ?" 

"You  bet." 


16  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

"Want  breakfast?" 

"Yep." 

"Did  you  save  your  nickel,  Johnny  ?" 

"Yep." 

"Well,  I'll  tell  ye,  Johnny,  you  can  eat  breakfast 
if  you  like,  but  there's  something  you'll  have  to  do 
first." 

"What's  that,  pop?" 

"Well,  you  see,  Johnny,  times  have  changed  since 
last  night.  You  see,  you've  got  money  now,  and 
you'll  have  to  pay  board" 

"What'll  I  have  to  pay,  pop?"  said  Johnny, 
weakly,  feeling  very  faint  in  the  stomach. 

"Well,  son,  you  give  me  your  nickel  that  you 
saved,  and  you  can  sit  down  and  eat  all  the  break- 
fast that  you  want  to." 

And  with  sorrow,  but  without  hesitation,  Johnny 
paid  over  his  nickel  for  breakfast. 

That's  my  story. 


Now  for  my  question. 

If  Johnny  got  a  nickel  for  going  without  his  sup- 
er, and  had  to  pay  a  nickel  for  his  breakfast,  How 
Much  Money  Did  Johnny  Save? 

No.  Don't  you  dare  to  laugh.  Not  if  you  are  a 
workingman. 

If  you  will  think  for  a  moment  you  will  see  that 


THE   GOSPEL  OF  THEIFT  17 

Johnny  saved  just  exactly  the  same  amount  that 
you  workingmen  can  save  out  of  your  wages.  How 
much  is  that?  How  much  wages  do  you  get?  I 
can  tell  you  to  the  cent.  Not  perhaps  just  what 
some  particular  workingman  gets,  but  just  exactly 
what  we  all  of  us  get  for  our  life's  work. 

Yesterday  we  got  just  enough  in  wages  to  sup- 
port us  in  such  a  way  that  we  could  work  to-day. 

Last  week  we  received  just  enough  in  wages  so 
that  we  could  work  this  week. 

This  month  we  will  receive  just  enough  so  that 
we  can  work  next  month. 

This  year  we  will  receive  just  enough  in  wages 
so  that  we  can  keep  ourselves  in  condition  to  work 
next  year. 

In  our  lifetime  we  shall  get  just  enough  wages  so 
that  we  can  do  the  master's  work  and  bring  suffi- 
cient children  into  the  world  to  take  up  our  task 
and  do  our  master's  work  after  we  are  gone. 

As  a  class,  we  workers  get  what  economists  call 
the  "living  wage" — neither  more  nor  less. 

Ah !  say  you,  you  know  some  workingmen  who 
get  $5  a  day !  Surely  that  is  more  than  the  living 
wage. 

Yes,  my  friends,  there  are  a  few  workingmen 
who  get  five  dollars  a  day.  But  it  is  sometimes  the 
case  that  a  man  with  a  high  money  wage  does  not 
receive  more  than  enough  to  enable  him  to  do  his 


18  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

work.  And  remember,  that  for  every  man  who  re- 
ceives above  the  living  wage  there  are  whole  groups 
who  receive  below  it — who  get  a  subsistence  or  a 
starvation  wage. 

And  think  of  those  who  have  no  work  and  get 
NO  wage. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  at  this  time,  when  those  who 
do  the  world's  work  can  produce  more  wealth  with 
less  labor  than  ever  before  in  the  world's  history, 
why  is  it  that  a  man  who  by  his  labor  in  a  day  can 
produce  an  amount  of  wealth  equal  in  value  to 
from  two  to  twenty  times  the  living  wage,  why  is 
it  that  under  these  conditions  a  man,  a  woman,  or  a 
child  works  for  the  "living  wage?"  There  is  just 
one  reason,  my  friends.  It  is  because  the  workers 
do  not  own  the  means  to  employ  themselves.  In 
order  to  live  they  must  work.  In  order  to  work 
they  must  sell  themselves  to  those  who  own  the 
things  with  which  work  is  done. 

We  Socialists  want  those  who  do  the  world's 
work  to  own  the  things  with  which  their  work  is 
done.  When  those  who  work  own  the  things  with 
which  they  work  they  will  own  the  wealth  produced 
by  their  work.  Then  those  who  work  will  be  rich 
and  have  all  the  wealth  they  are  willing  to  work 
for  and  produce — which  will  be  just  enough  for 
them.  And  then  those  who  do  no  work  will  have 
no  wealth — and  that  will  be  just  enough  for  them. 


The  Wild  Irishman 

IT  was  1902,  the  seventeenth  week  of  the  great 
anthracite  coal  strike.  Several  miners  had 
told  me  about  "The  Wild  Irishman."  The 
wonderful  things  he  had  done.  His  boldness  and 
bravery.  Equally  ready  to  go  down  the  shaft  in 
time  of  danger  to  rescue  a  comrade,  or  to  demand 
of  the  boss  a  raise  in  wages  for  himself  and  fellow 
miners,  or  to  assist  in  organizing  his  brethren  into 
a  union. 

"I'll  lose  me  job  if  I  talk  unionism,  will  I? 
Well,  then,  I'll  get  another.  If  I  can't  get  an- 
other, I'll  go  without." 

That  was  the  way  the  Wild  Irishman  talked 
when  he  was  told  that  he  would  be  fired  for  his 
activity  in  union  matters.  He  kept  right  on  or- 
ganizing unions.  Strange  to  say,  his  bosses  did 
not  fire  him.  As  the  Wild  Irishman  told  me  when 
I  saw  him: 

"If  I  lost  me  job,  I'd  have  had  all  the  more  time 
to  organize  the  men." 

I  looked  forward  with  interest  to  meeting  the 
Wild  Irishman.  At  last  I  went  to  his  cabin,  a 
company  "house"  in  a  mining  camp  near  Wilkes- 
barre,  Pa.  I  introduced  myself,  and  he  invited 


20  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

me  into  the  back  yard,  the  afternoon  being  warm. 
His  wife  joined  us.  Notwithstanding  all  I  had 
heard  about  him,  the  Wild  Irishman  took  me  by 
surprise.  He  was  a  man  well  along  into  the 
sixties,  what  with  the  diseases  and  accidents  inci- 
dent to  his  trade,  a  rare  old  age  for  a  miner.  He 
had  begun  anthracite  mining  in  the  old  days  when 
something  like  decent  wages  were  paid.  I  never 
saw  such  a  remarkable  looking  man  in  my  life. 
His  scalp  was  scarred,  and  his  face  bore  the  blue 
and  blue-black  marks  of  powder  explosions.  For 
the  rest,  it  seemed  as  though  every  bone  in  his 
body  was  either  fractured  or  dislocated.  During 
his  many  years  in  and  about  the  mines  he  had  met 
with  every  sort  of  accident.  Premature  and  de- 
layed explosions.  Fire  damp.  Pillars  giving  way. 
Roof  falling.  Pumping  machinery  out  of  order 
and  flooding  of  the  mine.  Cables  breaking. 
Every  sort  of  mining  accident  had  happened  to 
him  one  or  more  times.  Besides,  he  had  gone 
looking  for  accidents, — had  both  legs  broken  while 
digging  to  rescue  some  comrades  when  the  "hill  fell 
on  them."  Such  a  twisted,  battered-up  man  I  never 
saw.  But  somehow  nothing  had  ever  been  able  to 
"get  him"  in  a  vital  spot.  And  regardless  of  the 
fractures,  dislocations  and  scar-tissue  scattered 
through  and  over  his  face  and  body,  he  was  still  a 
handsome  man — and  a  strong  man,  notwithstand- 


THE  WILD  IRISHMAN  21 

ing  his  years.  Heart  and  lungs  as  sound  as  ever. 
And  an  eye  like  an  eagle.  Crippled  and  disfigured 
in  half  a  hundred  places,  grizzled,  and  gray,  and 
weather  heaten,  but  strong.  He  sat  there  on  a 
bench  in  the  little  back  yard,  telling  the  story  of 
the  great  strike  and  the  causes  of  it. 

And  his  good  wife  sat  by,  the  most  beautiful  old 
woman  I  have  ever  seen.  Hair  whiter  than  snow. 
A  fine  oval  face.  Wrinkled.  Deep  lines  written 
there  when  her  son  was  killed  in  the  tipple.  Other 
lines  that  told  of  want,  then  and  in  days  gone  by. 
And  other  lines  that  told  of  worry,  and  of  the  long 
sleepless  nights  and  days  while  she  was  watching 
and  nursing  the  Wild  Irishman.  And  yet  that 
seamed  old  face  was  cheerful.  She  was  one  of 
those  women  that  made  you  feel  better  if  she 
merely  nodded  to  you.  Her  "good  morning" 
would  cheer  you  up  for  the  day. 

The  Wild  Irishman  told  me  the  tale  of  the  strike, 
what  caused  it  and  what  it  was  for.  He  told  me 
the  low  wages  the  men  made — when  they  had  work. 
He  told  of  the  short  time,  the  lay-offs,  and  the 
shut-downs.  He  told  how  the  company  stores 
robbed  the  men,  charging  them  two  and  three 
prices  for  the  staple  necessaries  of  life;  how  the 
men  were  in  debt,  and  were  compelled  to  trade  at 
the  company  stores;  those  who  were  not  in  debt 
being  laid  off.  He  told  how  the  company  charged 


22  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

the  miner  two  and  three  times  the  market  price 
for  powder.  He  told  how  the  company  sold  coal 
on  a  basis  of  2,240  pounds  to  the  ton,  and  how  they 
compelled  the  miner  to  give  them  a  ton  of  3,000 
pounds  or  more.  He  told  how  the  men  were 
docked  for  trifling  things,  and  how  the  companies 
fought  against  a  check  weighman — a  measure  with 
no  purpose  except  to  insure  the  honest  weighing  of 
the  coal.  He  told  of  the  company  doctor,  the  com- 
pany houses,  and  countless  other  grand  and  petty 
forms  of  robbery  and  extortion  practised  by  the 
coal  barons. 

As  he  concluded  his  story  of  the  conditions  under 
which  he  had  labored  for  so  many  years,  the  Wild 
Irishman  stood  up.  He  raised  one  hand  as  if 
taking  an  oath  and  said : 

"And  I  and  the  boys  will  never  go  back  under 
the  old  conditions — never — I'll  ate  the  dirt  in  the 
street  first!" 

Then  the  white-haired  old  wife  spoke  up.  Said 
she: 

"Yes,  and  I'll  cook  it  for  him!" 

That's  what  I  call  Solidarity. 

I  am  one  of  those  who  throughout  my  life  have 
been  very  fortunate  in  my  friendships.  But  I 
never  have  and  never  shall  meet  a  nobler  man  than 
the  Wild  Irishman,  nor  a  grander,  braver  man. 

Why  wouldn't  he  be — with  a  wife  like  that  ? 


Labor  Produces  All  Wealth* 

OTHER  than  the  resources  of  nature,  Social- 
ists maintain  that  Labor  of  brain  and 
brawn,  Labor  of  mind  and  limb,  produces 
all  wealth. 

Because  Labor  produces  all  wealth,  we  maintain 
that  those  who  do  the  Labor  should  have  all  the 
wealth  produced. 

There  are  those  who  will  tell  you  that  capital 
produces  wealth  and  that  Money  Makes  Money. 
Let  us  consider  it  a  moment. 

Good  old  pious  Deacon  Rockefeller  no  doubt  has 
capital  to  the  equivalent  of  a  billion  dollars.  Now, 
suppose  that  Mr.  Rockefeller  could  get  a  billion 
dollars  in  gold  eagles  coined  at  the  United  States 
mints.  And  suppose  that  he  placed  that  billion 
dollars  in  gold  down  in  New  York's  City  Hall 
Park. 

How  long  would  the  pious  old  deacon's  billion 
dollars  in  gold  have  to  remain  there  before  they 
added  unto  themselves  another  gold  eagle?  They 
never  would  do  it,  and  you  all  know  it. 

Nor  would  it  change  matters  in  the  slightest  if 
the  money  were  silver  instead  of  gold. 


*  From  lecture,  "Socialism  the  Hope  of  the  World," 
1903. 


24  FIGHT  FOB  YOUR  LIFE ! 

Let  Deacon  Rockefeller  get  a  billion  silver  dol- 
lars, every  one  of  them  coined  at  Mr.  Bryan's  sacred 
ratio  of  sixteen  to  one — he  is  such  a  pious  man,  let 
him  have  "In  God  We  Trust"  stamped  on  both 
sides  instead  of  one  side  of  every  last  one  of  them — 
how  long  would  they  have  to  remain  buried  in  City 
Hall  Park  before  they  became  two  billion  dollars? 
They'd  never  do  it,  and  you  all  know  it. 

Though  that  billion  of  silver  dollars  lay  in  the 
richest  soil  on  earth  for  a  billion  years,  they  would 
not  in  all  that  time  add  to  themselves  a  single 
dollar,  or  even  a  lead  dime  with  a  hole  in  it. 

Ah,  you  say,  money  is  only  potential  capital. 
When  Mr.  Rockefeller  puts  his  money  into  real  cap- 
ital, then  it  creates  wealth. 

Well,  let  us  see.  Suppose  that  the  blessed  old 
deacon  put  his  billion  dollars  into  the  shoe  indus- 
try. 

Let  us  imagine,  if  we  can,  that  over  in  City  Hall 
Park  there  is  an  immense  shoe  factory;  that  it  is 
fully  equipped  with  the  latest  and  very  best  tools 
and  machinery  for  the  making  of  shoes;  that  his 
storerooms  are  filled  nigh  on  to  bursting  with  the 
raw  materials  of  which  shoes  are  made — leather 
and  findings,  and  eyelets  and  laces,  and  pegs  and 
blacking — the  factory,  tools,  machines  and  raw  ma- 
terials all  together  having  a  value  of  a  billion  dol- 
lars, and  all  Rockefeller's. 


LABOR  PRODUCES  ALL  WEALTH     25 

Now,  then,  how  long  will  that  shoe  factory  have 
to  stand  there  before  it  makes  a  pair  of  shoes? 
How  long  before  the  leather  and  findings  make 
themselves  into  shoes?  They'll  never  do  it,  and 
you  all  know  it. 

Another  factor  must  be  added  to  the  raw  mate- 
rial and  the  machines  before  we  have  shoes  even 
from  a  billion-dollar  shoe  factory.  We  must  have 
Labor — in  this  case  the  Labor  of  the  shoemaker. 
Only  when  the  Laborer  comes  along  and  plies  the 
tools,  and  operates  the  machines,  and  manipulates 
the  leather — then,  and  not  before,  we  shall  have 


Now,  if  the  Labor  of  the  men  in  the  building 
trades  erected  the  factory,  if  the  Labor  of  the  ma- 
chinists built  the  machines,  if  the  Labor  of  the  tan- 
ners made  the  leather,  and  if  the  Labor  of  the 
shoemakers  made  the  shoes — if  Labor  did  it  ALL, 
where  is  the  reason  in  justice  that  those  who  did 
ALL  the  Labor  are  not  entitled  to  ALL  of  its 
fruits  ? 

The  shoes  in  which  we  walk  up  Broadway  in  no 
way  differ  from  the  bull's  hide  tortured  by  flies  on 
the  plains  of  Argentina  except  in  so  far  as  the 
bull's  hide  has  been  the  receptacle  of  Human 
Labor. 

Ah,  but  once  again  say  you,  when  you  put  your 
money  in  the  bank,  then  money  makes  money. 


26  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

Some  people  seem  to  think  that  the  first  dollar 
placed  in  the  bank  is  a  male  dollar,  and  the  second 
dollar  is  a  female  dollar,  and  these  male  and  female 
dollars  get  married,  and  then  every  year  after  the 
wedding  ceremony  these  dollars  have  children  in 
the  form  of  nickels  and  dimes,  or  annual  interest 
at  five  and  ten  per  cent. 

But  it  isn't  so.  The  dollar  you  put  in  the  bank 
is  simply  the  representative  of  wealth  that  was  pro- 
duced by  Labor;  and  when  it  is  taken  out  of  the 
bank  it  is  exchanged  for  means  of  production  (cap- 
ital, if  you  please),  and  that  capital  was  itself  pro- 
duced by  Labor,  and  then  a  workingman  comes 
along  and  uses  that  capital,  and  his  Labor  produces 
more  wealth,  and  then  that  wealth  produced  by 
Labor  is  exchanged  for  other  dollars,  and  those 
dollars  that  replace  the  principal  and  pay  the  in- 
terest are  placed  back  in  the  bank.  And  Labor 
built  the  bank,  and  Labor  made  the  safe  in  the 
bank,  and  Labor  made  the  paper  and  printed,  or 
Labor  dug  the  gold  and  minted  the  dollars,  all  of 
them,  male,  female  and  neuter. 

And  the  only  place  where  the  wedding  comes  in 
is  where  the  Very  Eminent  Gentleman  who  is 
president  of  the  bank  marries  the  money  and  takes 
it  to  Canada  with  him — and  that's  a  decree  of  di- 
vorce from  yours. 


Chicago 

Address   at  the   Garrick  Theatre,  Chicago, 
May  3,  1908 

A  MAN  who  had  long  resided  in  Chicago  (he 
had  never  lived)  died,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  went  to  hell.  But  when  he  got  there 
he  did  not  know  the  place.     He  thought  it  was 
Heaven — he   found  it   so  much   pleasanter  than 
Chicago. 

Chicago — the  place  where  all  of  Capital's  dreams 
come  true.  Straight  down  from  the  first  to  the 
seventh  hell.  Then  down,  down  to  the  bottom  of 
the  bottomless  pit — there  is  Chicago.  Chicago — 
an  industrial  penitentiary,  the  buildings  and 
grounds  covering  hundreds  of  square  miles.  In- 
mates and  keepers  numbering  more  than  two  thou- 
sand thousand  souls — many  of  them  dead,  all 
others  in  fever  and  travail.  Chicago — the  penal 
city.  Rolling  mill  prisons.  Factory  prisons.  De- 
partment store  prisons.  Reaper  works  prisons. 
Stock  yards  prisons.  Factory  prisons  full  of  chil- 
dren. Factory  prisons  full  of  women.  Factory 
prisons  full  of  men.  Some  of  them  trusties — 
but  they  can't  escape.  Prisons  for  all  who 
work.  All  must  work  in  prisons.  None  can 


28  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

ever  work  out  of  prison — in  Chicago.  All  and 
each  serving  a  life  sentence.  Inmates  and 
keepers,  all  must  work — work,  and  hurry,  in 
Chicago.  Hurry  or  die — hurry  and  die  — 
hurry  to  death — the  capitalist  devils  can't  wait 
— in  Chicago.  Primitive  men  utilized  cliffs  and 
caves  for  dwellings.  Chicago  people  dwell  in  cliffs 
and  caves.  Not  those  made  by  nature.  Nature's 
cliffs  and  caves  are  not  high  enough,  not  low 
enough,  not  dark  enough.  So  the  Chicago  prison- 
ers made  their  own  caves  and  cliffs — and  made 
them  foul,  and  dark,  and  poisonous.  Chicago — 
peopled  by  souls  that  are  dead,  with  hearts  of  lead, 
in  their  rotting  flesh,  hung  on  brittle  bones.  Chi- 
cago— where  the  buildings  shake  and  the  streets 
rock  and  the  whole  place  quakes  always — where 
they  know  no  silence  and  hear  no  song — where 
there  are  noises  ever,  and  never  music  sounds. 
Chicago — where  most  that  is  not  crime  or  vice  is 
humbug — statues  of  plaster,  pretense  of  marble; 
buildings  of  staff  and  sand,  pretense  of  stone ;  putty 
and  paint,  pretense  of  iron  and  steel ;  men  who  are 
devils,  smug-faced,  clerical-clothed,  pretense  of 
virtue;  pallid  women,  rouged,  pretense  of  health; 
bejeweled  women,  hearts  of  flint ;  perfumed  women, 
fine  ladies,  disguising  the  stench  of  them.  The 
hands  on  the  clock  say  the  hour  is  morning — but 
they  work  all  night  in  the  night  time,  and  there  is 


CHICAGO  <59 

no  day  in  Chicago.  Hurry,  hurry  to  work,  pris- 
oners and  keepers — hurry  all.  Go  faster,  ever 
faster.  Don't  lose  the  step.  If  you  lose  the  step, 
you  fall.  And  if  you  fall  you  die— in  Chicago. 
Work,  little  child,  work,  and  hurry.  Work,  little 
girl,  work  faster.  Wear  crash  and  rags ;  mind  not 
your  withering,  bending  frame;  work,  little  girl, 
and  hurry.  Your  employer's  little  daughter — as 
your  cheeks  pale,  so  hers  shall  bloom.  She 
shall  be  swathed  in  silk  and  fine  linen,  and  clothed 
in  lace ;  she  shall  be  light  and  airy  as  a  fairy — and 
as  she  older  grows  she  will  thank  the  only  God  she 
knows  she  is  not  like  you.  Work,  child,  work,  and 
hurry.  Work,  woman,  work,  and  hurry;  faster, 
faster,  or  you  will  lose  your  place  in  the  prison; 
work,  work,  work.  Mind  not  your  bruised  and 
faded  flesh,  your  aching,  all  but  breaking  bones; 
work,  woman,  work ;  faster,  ever  faster.  Wear  bur- 
lap and  tatters  over  your  shrivelling  form.  Your 
employer's  wife — she  shall  be  a  Juno,  and  arrayed 
in  raiment  that  would  shame  a  queen ;  every  thread 
shall  be  washed  and  dyed  in  your  heart's  blood. 
Your  employees  many  mistresses — not  Venus, 
with  full  round  breast  and  rosy  lip,  shall  compare 
with  them.  They  shall  have  the  beauty  that  was 
yours,  and  your  sister's,  and  your  daughter's.  In  a 
year  and  a  day  you  shall  die,  but  they  shall  live 
the  sum  of  life  that  belonged  to  you,  and  when  they 


30  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE ! 

are  gorged  with  their  cannibal  feast  they  will  pray 
their  God  of  hosts  for  more,  and  thank  their  Holy 
Ghost  they  are  not  like  you.  So  work,  woman, 
work ;  but  hurry ;  faster,  faster,  ever  faster.  Work, 
man,  work.  Hurry.  Your  keepers  watch.  The 
foreman's  eyes  are  never  closed.  So  bend  your 
back,  and  hurry.  The  load  is  heavy — never  mind. 
'Tis  a  load  of  gold,  and  gold  is  God — God  of  your 
masters,  God  of  your  keepers,  God  of  your  City  of 
Death.  Chicago — the  sun  may  shine  over,  it  never 
shines  upon  Chicago.  Always  covered  with  a  gray- 
black  pall  of  poison.  Chicago — where  only  the 
robbers  and  skinners  live;  where  the  workers  and 
doers  die.  Chicago — where  profit  blights  like  a 
pestilence.  Chicago — where  inmates  and  keepers 
live  on  the  hell-broth  brew  from  the  witches'  cal- 
dron ;  toads,  and  Crotalus,  lizards,  ordure,  children, 
women,  men — heart  of  a  girl,  love  of  a  boy,  a  fa- 
ther's spirit,  a  mother's  joy — all  steeped  together 
in  the  blackened  pit,  cursed  by  the  forked  tongue 
of  the  fanged  and  venomed  and  taloned  hag. 
Chicago — where  railways  steal  their  "right"  of  way, 
steal  the  lake  front,  steal  part  of  the  lake — and  are 
going  to  steal  the  rest.  Chicago — where  the  rulers 
sold  the  people's  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage — 
and  then  they  stole  the  pottage.  Chicago — city  of 
saloons,  dives,  brothels,  dens  and  joints.  Chicago 
— where  Satan  is  blessed  and  the  Saint  is  damned. 


CHICAGO  31 

Chicago — city  of  Godless  churches,  dedicated  to  the 
worship  of  devils  and  dollars.  Chicago — where 
Justice,  with  bandaged  eyes,  was  slain  in  her  own 
temple  with  her  own  sword.  Chicago — place  of  the 
levee — where  the  soiled  woman  dies  to  live.  Be- 
fore she  reached  there  she  worked  long  hours  for  a 
pittance  bare  to  keep  her  body  alive.  But  the  Lord 
of  the  Factory  made  her  sell  her  soul  for  the  chance 
to  work.  And  now  on  the  levee,  weak  unto  death, 
she  still  must  tribute  pay  to  the  Lord  of  the  Land. 
Worse  still.  The  strongest  men  in  this  prison 
town,  its  finest,  bravest,  best — guardians  of  its 
peace — its  Magnificent  Police — this  poor  woman, 
before  feeding  her  child  from  her  trade  of  death, 
must  pay  tribute — blackmail — to  the  noble  execu- 
tors of  the  law.  Oh,  that  monsters  in  the  form  of 
man  could  steal  the  babe's  milk  from  the  famishing 
mother's  withered  breast!  But  this  in  Chicago, 
where  they  pillage  the  poor,  and  rob  the  dead  and 
club  the  unemployed.  Into  the  cells  of  the  bottom- 
less pit,  into  this  prison  with  its  two  millions  of 
souls,  there  penetrates  one  ray  of  light  from  a 
single  Star  of  Hope.  Here  in  this  hell  a  Working 
Class  Awakes.  Maimed  and  mauled,  battered  and 
scarred,  broken  and  twisted,  almost  deafened,  they 
listen ;  almost  blinded,  they  see — and  their  look  is 
upward.  They  listen  to  the  gospel  of  Brotherhood 
and  they  look  for  the  Star  of  Socialism,  and  even 


32  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE ! 

the  prisoners  of  this  penal  colony  love,  and  grasp 
each  other's  hands — and  they  are  going  to  make 
this  Bedlam  blossom  as  the  rose.  Long  since  the 
seed  of  truth  was  sown  in  this  soil  of  sin.  Wher- 
ever that  seed  falls  there  that  seed  shall  grow 
— even  in  the  noisome  gardens  of  Cannibal 
Capitalism.  But,  oh,  how  long  the  time!  Yet 
shall  there  be  rest  for  the  weary — even  in  Chicago. 
Chicago — where  men  live  like  paupers,  work  like 
horses,  and  die  like  dogs.  Even  in  Chicago,  the 
heavy  laden  shall  find  relief;  the  naked  shall  be 
clothed;  the  famished  prisoners  fed;  they  that 
mourn  shall  be  comforted ;  and  the  souls  that  thirst 
shall  drink  of  the  waters  of  life,  and  love — and 
Love  is  Life.  In  the  Chicago  that  is  to  be.  When 
Capitalism  dies,  then  shall  the  Free  Man  rise,  in 
the  world  that  is  to  be — peopled  with  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  comrades  and  lovers — a  world  that  is 
Paradise. 


There  Ain't  Coin'  to  be  No 
Servant  Girls 

FEW  and  far  between  are  the  crumbs  of  com- 
fort seen  as  one  looks  over  the  world  of 
capitalism.  But  there  are  two  recurrent 
news  items  that  cause  me  to  chortle  with  glee  and 
warm  the  cockles  of  my  heart. 

One  is  the  wail  raised  by  the  gentlemen  of  com- 
merce because  it  is  so  difficult  to  get  American- 
born  boys  to  be  sailors.  The  other  is  the  whining 
belch  of  our  fine  ladies  because  of  the  scarcity  of 
servant  girls. 

Generally  speaking,  a  common  sailor  is  treated 
a  little  better  than  a  dog.  Most  servant  girls  are 
treated  worse  than  dogs. 

"Domestics,"  they  are  called  by  their  "mis- 
tresses," but  few  of  them  meet  the  kindness  and 
consideration  accorded  domestic  animals. 

They  cook  the  best  food,  and  eat  the  leavings. 
They  set  the  table  in  the  dining  room,  and  eat  in 
the  kitchen.  They  sweep  and  dust  the  parlor,  but 
they  must  not  sit  there.  They  empty  the  slops  and 
make  the  beds  in  fine  chambers,  but  they  sleep  in 
attic  or  cellar,  or  in  a  cubby-hole  under  the  stairs. 

Every  male  member  of  the  household  has  a  right 


to  insult  her.  No  matter  who  or  what  he  is — 
raw  and  driveling  youth,  burly  master,  or  drooling 
and  senile  grandpa.  Driven  to  bay  by  these  fine 
gentlemen,  she  may  call  for  help.  But  there  is  no 
help.  Only  mistress  can  hear  her  cry.  She  knows 
"her  boy"  wouldn't  do  such  a  thing.  "You  are  the 
brazen  baggage."  "Leave  my  house — hussy  !"  No 
reference.  No  "character."  When  attacked  by 
foreman  or  employer,  the  factory  girl  may  save 
her  soul  at  the  price  of  her  place  and  bread,  but 
many  times  the  "domestic"  must  give  up  all  on 
the  altar  of  slavery. 

One  afternoon  and  one  evening  out  every  week. 
Last  one  to  bed,  first  to  get  up.  Fires,  dishes, 
meals,  slops,  beds,  sweeping,  dusting,  children, 
washing,  mending,  windows,  scouring,  scrubbing 
— all  to  be  done  for  others,  all  to  be  done  in  the 
way  that  others  say. 

No,  dear  madam,  my  fine,  fat  old  female  with 
the  double  chin,  there  ain't  goin'  to  be  no  servant 
girls  in  the  world  that  is  to  be.  It's  a  terrible 
thought.  But  take  heart  of  hope.  It  may  not  be 
as  bad  as  you  fear.  True,  there  shall  be  no  serv- 
ants, but  it  does  not  follow  that  there  shall  be  no 
service.  First  of  all,  tools  and  machines,  organi- 
zation of  labor,  division  and  subdivision  of  labor, 
shall  do  many  things  now  done  by  the  domestic 
slave.  And  about  machines  and  their  labor  there 


NO  SERVANT  GIRLS  35 

shall  be  no  smell  of  servitude  or  slavery,  no  taint 
of  the  "menial." 

True,  brass  and  iron,  cogs  and  levers  and  springs 
and  steel  can  not  do  everything.  There  are  left 
tasks  that  must  be  done,  tasks  that  only  human 
hands  can  do.  That  service  shall  be  performed, 
dear  lady. 

But  not  by  servants,  not  by  slaves. 

It  will  be  the  service  one  equal  performs  for  an- 
other. The  obligation  will  be  on  the  side  of  the 
one  who  receives  the  service. 

Dear,  dainty  madam,  in  the  day  that  is  to  be, 
if  you  want  someone  to  take  care  of  your  dirty 
linen,  you're  going  to  be  awful  good  to  them.  Yes, 
you  really  are ;  indeed,  you  are.  You  can't  believe 
it,  but  it's  true.  And  you're  not  going  to  pay  for 
their  service  with  $3  a  week,  and  meanness,  and 
asperity,  and  airs  of  superiority.  In  the  day  that 
is  to  be — not  far  off,  dear,  gentle  lady — you  will 
find  that  if  you  want  service  you  will  have  to 
render  service.  You  will  find  there  are  things  that 
may  not  be  bought  with  a  bank  check,  however 
large. 

Dear,  pretty  lady,  do  you  know  what  you  owe 
your  servant  girl?  Do  you  know  that  your  fine 
raiment  is  woven  out  of  her  rags?  That  your 
riches  are  coined  out  of  her  poverty?  That  your 
freshness  and  bloom  are  the  health  that  was  hers  ? 


36  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

That  every  minute  of  your  leisure  has  been  coined 
out  of  her  life? 

Beautiful  mistress,  in  the  world  that  is  to  be 
things  will  be  very  different.  There  ain't  goin'  to 
be  no  servant  girls.  In  that  world  you,  pretty 
creature,  will  have  to  be  useful  as  well  as  orna- 
mental. But,  cheer  up.  It  may  not  be  as  bad  as 
you  fear.  You  are  going  to  lose  your  servant — 
that  is  sure. 

Maybe  you'll  find  a  sister  where  once  you  had  a 
slave.  THAT  would  make  it  worth  while, 
wouldn't  it? 

No  servant  to  obey  you,  no  slave  to  fear  you, 
but  a  sister  who  shall  love  you — even  you. 


I.  Mother  Jones  Deported 

IN  May,  1904,  I  was  in  Trinidad,  Colo.,  center 
of  the  lignite  coal  region.     For  a  long  time 
the  miners  had  been  on  strike.     Their  de- 
mands were  for  the  enforcement  of  the  eight-hour 
clause  of  the  Colorado  State  Constitution,  more 
air  and  better  ventilation  of  the  mines,  abolition 
of  the  pluck-me  company  stores,  payment  of  wages 
in  money  instead  of  checks,  and  the  amelioration 
of  other  wrongs  which  have  followed  the  miners  in 
all  the  coal  camps  of  the  United  States. 

Inasmuch  as  the  miners  demanded  that  the 
eight-hour  mandates  of  the  constitution  be  enforced 
for  their  benefit,  they  were  at  once  declared  to  be 
in  rebellion,  the  militia  were  ordered  out,  and  Trin- 
idad was  placed  under  martial  law.  Of  the  strik- 
ers, some  were  beaten,  killed,  jailed,  bull-penned 
or  deported.  There  was  no  outrage  known  to  sav- 
age or  civilized  man  that  was  not  visited  on  the 
defenseless  miners  of  Trinidad  by  the  mine  own- 
ers' detectives,  deputy  sheriffs  or  militia.  In 
these  outrages  the  mine  owners  were  at  all  times 
aided,  abetted  and  protected  by  Governor  Peabody 
— good  friend  of  Theodore  Eoosevelt  and  William 
H.  Taft.  Do  not  forget  the  latter,  Mr.  Work- 


38  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

ingman.  You  have  a  right  and  a  duty  to  hold 
him  responsible  for  his  friends. 

It  was  not  a  sufficient  vindication  of  the  "maj- 
esty of  the  law"  and  the  power  of  the  "good  peo- 
ple" of  Trinidad  to  deport  men  strikers  and  sym- 
pathizers. 

One  day — late  one  night,  rather — old,  white- 
haired  Mother  Jones  was  taken  from  her  bed- 
room in  the  hotel,  placed  in  front  of  fixed  bay- 
onets, marched  to  a  train,  and  taken  to  the  Terri- 
tory of  Arizona. 

During  my  stay  in  Trinidad  I  met  one  of  its 
leading  citizens,  a  lawyer.  Discussing  the  strike, 
I  asked  him  if  he  did  not  think  the  mine  owners 
might  have  limited  their  war  to  a  fight  on  the 
men,  and  inquired  if  he  did  not  regard  it  as  pretty 
low  down  to  use  the  militia  to  attack  and  deport 
a  white-haired  old  woman  like  Mother  Jones.  At 
mention  of  the  name  of  Mother  Jones  the  fel- 
low's face  turned  fire  red  with  excitement,  and  he 
swelled  up  like  a  poisoned  pup. 

"Mother  Jones !"  said  he.  "Mother  Jones !  We 
ought  to  have  deported  her  long  before  we  did." 

"Well,  what  did  Mother  Jones  do?"  I  inquired 
as  gently  as  I  could. 

"What  did  she  do?"  howled  the  lawyer.  "What 
didn't  she  do?" 

"Well,  just  mention  what  she  did,"  said  I. 


MOTHER  JONES  DEPORTED          39 

"What  did  she  do?  She— she  talked!"  he 
answered,  and  he  was  livid  with  anger. 

"Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  would  take  an 
old  woman  in  the  60's  and  run  her  out  of  the 
state  because  she  talked?" 

"By  G — d,  you  ought  to  have  heard  what  she 
said!"  he  replied.  "And -those  d — d  miners  be- 
lieved her,  every  word." 

"What  did  she  say?"  I  questioned. 

"She  said  everything.  She  deserved  to  be  de- 
ported." 

"Well,  now,  what  was  the  very  worst  thing  she 
said?  What  did  she  say  that  was  not  true?" 

"She — she  said  that  'Labor  produces  all  wealth.' 
I  heard  her  myself — right  out  in  the  street  there, 
in  front  of  this  very  hotel — and  a  whole  army  of 
these  d — d  strikers  heard  her,  and  believed  her." 

"Is  that  the  worst  she  said?  Did  you  deport 
Mother  Jones  because  she  said  that  'Labor  pro- 
duces all  wealth'?" 

"'No — not  entirely,"  said  Mr.  Lawyer.  "She 
said  other  things — and  worse.  She  said  'Labor 
should  have  all  it  produces.'" 

"Do  you  deny  that  'Labor  produces  all  wealth'  ? 
and  that  'Labor  should  have  all  it  produces'?" 

"Deny  it?  Certainly  I  deny  it.  Everybody 
knows  it  isn't  so." 


40  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

"And  so  you  deported  Mother  Jones  for  saying 
what  everybody  knows  isn't  so?" 

"Well,  d — n  her,  it  isn't  so,  but  she  made  them 
think  it  was  so !" 

"It  seems  to  me,"  said  I,  "that  you  might  have 
found  a  way  to  lessen  Mother  Jones'  influence 
over  the  miners  much  more  effectual  than  that  of 
running  her  out  of  the  state." 

"How?"  he  asked,  anxiously.  "How?  What 
else  could  we  do?  We  had  to  get  rid  of  her 
somehow." 

"You  are  a  lawyer?"  I  questioned. 

"Yes." 

"A  college  graduate?" 

"Yes." 

"Accustomed  to  addressing  judges,  juries — able 
to  make  a  public  speech  before  your  fellow  citi- 
zens in  a  creditable  way,  doubtless?" 

"Well,  my  friends  say  so,"  he  admitted,  most 
genially. 

"Then,"  said  I,  "let  us  look  at  it  this  way: 
We'll  just  suppose  that  old  Mother  Jones  is  out 
on  that  street  corner  now,  and  that  she  is  telling 
a  lot  of  miners  that  'Labor  produces  all  wealth.' 
Now,  you  know  that  is  not  true.  You  know  that 
labor  does  not  produce  all  wealth.  You  are  a  man 
of  learning.  More — you  are  a  man  of  trained 
mind.  Better  still — you  are  familiar  with  the 


MOTHER  JONES  DEPORTED          41 

forum;  it  is  a  habit  with  you  to  reach  the  rea- 
son of  a  judge,  to  rouse  the  emotions  of  a  jury. 
Now,  then,  if  Mother  Jones  was  out  in  the  street 
tonight,  telling  people  that  'Labor  produces  all 
wealth,'  it  would  be  absolutely  foolish  for  you  to 
deport  her.  There  is  a  much  better  way  than 
that — a  way  in  which  you  can  destroy  her  influ- 
ence absolutely.  Besides,  it's  legal — and  as  a  leader 
of  the  bar,  of  course  you  know  that  deporting 
women  for  talking  out  loud  isn't  legal — that  is, 
not  strictly." 

"Well?  Well?  What  is  that  way?" 

"Simplest  thing  in  the  world.  Can't  see  how 
you  overlooked  it.  Here  you  are :  Mother  Jones 
out  there  on  an  old  soap  box  tonight.  She's  a 
stranger  in  Trinidad — you  are  well  known.  She 
has  no  education — while  you,  you  belong  to  a 
learned  profession.  She  has  no  standing  here — 
you  are  a  leading,  a  distinguished  citizen.  Mother 
Jones  goes  on  with  her  speech.  She  says  'Labor 
produces  all  wealth.'  With  your  own  ears  you 
hear  her  say  so.  You  know  it's  false.  But  you 
don't  need  to  deport  her  for  that.  I  can  tell  you 
a  way  by  which  you  can  beat  her  game  to  a 
frazzle.  Just  you" 

"What?  What  is  that  way?"  said  Mr.  Lawyer 
in  breathless  interest. 

"Easiest    thing    ever    was.      Tonight    Mother 


42  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

Jones  says  'Labor  produces  all  wealth.'  You  know 
better.  So  tomorrow  night,  on  that  same  corner, 
YOU  speak  to  the  people.  YOU  tell  them  that 
the  statement  by  Mother  Jones  that  'Labor  pro- 
duces all  wealth'  is  not  so.  It  is  a  lie.  YOU  not 
only  tell  the  people  it  is  not  so.  YOU  prove  it. 
YOU  explain  to  them  just  how  wealth  is  produced. 
YOU  show  them  just  what  it  is  that  does  produce 
wealth,  and  how  it  is  NOT  labor.  See?  There 
you  are.  No  soldiers,  no  deputy  sheriffs.  No  need 
to  deport  Mother  Jones.  She'd  just  have  to  leave 
town  her  own  self." 

"Oh,  what's  the  use  ?  If  I  was  to  make  a  speech 
out  on  that  street  corner  no  one  would  come  to 
hear  me.  Besides,  it  wouldn't  make  any  differ- 
ence if  they  did.  Everybody  knows  me  around 
here.  Nobody'd  believe  anything  I  said." 

Why  should  he  not  appeal  to  the  police,  the 
bad  men,  the  thieves,  thugs  and  militia?  How 
else  can  his  side  win  ?  Can  they  win  that  way  ? 

That  is  another  story. 


II.  Capitalism's  Confession 

THE  strong  man  fights  fair.     He  relies  on 
his  strength  to  win. 

The  man  with  a  righteous  cause  fights 
fair.     He  relies  on  his  cause  to  win. 

The  brave  man  fights  fair.  He  would  rather 
lose  with  honor  than  win  with  honor  lost. 

Cowards,  weaklings,  men  with  a  cause  unjust — 
such  men  are  ever  ready  to  foul  if  hard  pressed 
in  a  fight.  The  blow  below  the  belt,  the  dagger  in 
the  back,  the  venomed  arrow,  the  poisoned  well, 
slander,  lies — foul  fighting.  These  are  the  weap- 
ons of  the  man  with  a  craven  heart,  the  man  who 
fears. 

FEAE — the  most  terrible  thing  in  the  world. 
All  this  world's  realities  of  wrong  for  all  time  do 
not  total  such  an  awful  sum  as  FEAR.  Truly, 
the  man  who  fears  is  possessed  of  the  devil.  His 
life  is  a  burning,  living  death  beside  which  death 
itself  is  an  angel  of  grace  on  a  cloud  of  peace. 

Fear  is  a  most  prolific  mother.  Fear  breeds 
greater  Fear.  Fear  marches  like  the  black  plague, 
only  faster.  In  all  the  world  there  are  no  walls 
so  high  or  thick  that  Fear  cannot  mount  them  or 
raze  them.  Earth  has  no  rock-bound  citadel  that 
Fear  cannot  enter.  Man  can  make  no  door  that 


44  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE^. 

Fear  cannot  open.  In  a  city  of  a  million  souls, 
if  there  be  but  one  man  who  Fears,  all  are  in  dan- 
ger. One  may  calculate,  measure,  limit,  the  power 
and  action  of  enemies,  fools,  scoundrels.  None 
can  forecast  the  actions  of  the  man  who  Fears. 
Fire,  fever,  clubs,  swords,  wars — there  is  no  limit 
to  the  evil  power  of  those  who  Fear.  Their 
enemies,  their  friends,  themselves — all  are  endan- 
gered by  those  who  Fear. 

Wherever  there  is  a  capitalist  who  grasps  a  part 
of  the  meaning  of  Socialism,  there  is  a  capitalist 
who  Fears.  He  thinks  that  shrewdness  is  wisdom 
and  that  force  is  power,  and,  moved  by  the  lever 
of  Fear,  he  first  tries  to  fight  philosophy  with 
sophistry,  and  to  oppose  science  with  cunning. 
Worsted  in  the  test  by  argument,  his  Fear  grows 
greater.  Then  his  craven  heart  comes  to  the  re- 
lief of  his  crafty  mind — they  are  always  together. 
Craft  tells  him  he  cannot  win  by  reason.  Cow- 
ardice t-ells  him  he  MAY  win  by  force.  Fear  eats 
him  like  an  acid. 

He  cannot  meet  the  arguments  of  Mother 
Jones.  Bring  on  the  militia.  Deport  the  old 
woman.  He  confesses  his  weakness. 

He  cannot  answer  the  Socialist  speaker  on  the 
street  corner.  "Police!"  "Arrest  him.  Stop 
these  agitators."  He  confesses  his  cause  is  un- 
just. 


CAPITALISM'S  CONFESSION          45 

The  unemployed  parade.  "Police!"  cries  the 
Capitalist  in  a  paroxysm  of  FEAR.  "Club  them  !" 
"Arrest  them.  Disperse  them !"  Confession  of 
cowardice.  He  dare  not  even  look  at  the  main 
prop  of  his  prosperity — the  unemployed. 

Confession.     Confession.     Confession. 

Confession  of  Wrong. 

Confession  of  Weakness. 

Confession  of  Cowardice. 

Every  anti-labor  injunction,  every  suppression 
of  the  rights  of  free  speech  and  a  free  press,  every 
foul  and  unjust  decision  against  labor  by  cap- 
italist courts,  every  deportation  of  union  men, 
every  call  for  militia — all  are  Confession.  The 
Capitalist's  Confession  that  in  opposing  Social- 
ism he  cannot  win  by  argument,  but  may  by  force. 
Confession  that  he  cannot  win  by  fair  means,  but 
may  by  foul.  Confession  that  Fear — peace-de- 
stroying, death-dealing  Fear — is  gnawing  his  heart 
like  cancer.  In  madness,  the  man  who  Fears  de- 
stroys himself. 

Socialists,  as  the  Capitalist  Fears,  so  shall  we 
Hope.  He  will  deal  us  some  terrible  blows — foul 
blows,  blows  in  the  dark,  blows  in  the  back.  We 
shall  have  to  stand  punishment.  More  than  once 
we  shall  leave  our  dead  and  wounded  on  the  field. 
We  shall  lose  some  battles,  but  we  shall  not  lose 
the  war.  As  the  Revolutionary  patriots  lost  their 


46  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

Lexington  and  their  Bunker  Hill,  so  may  we. 
But,  like  them,  we  shall  win  our  Saratoga  and  our 
Yorktown — and  we  shall  dictate  the  terms  of  peace. 
The  Man  Who  Fears  has  been  a  power  for  evil, 
but  his  sun  shall  set  on  the  day  when  he  meets  the 
man  who  Hopes. 


"  See   the   Beautiful   Houses  at 
Primero !  "* 

A  True  Story  of  the  Trinidad  Goal   Strike 
(1904) 

IN  the  Trinidad  coal  field  the  employers  would 
at  no  time  confer  with  the  officers  of  the 
union.     As  usual,  they  said  they  were  at  all 
times  ready  to  listen  to  anything  their  employees 
had  to   say  to  them   as   INDIVIDUALS.     But 
they  absolutely  refused  to  recognize  the  union. 
Individual  employees  repeatedly  went  to  them  and 
asked  that  ills  be  remedied. 
With  what  result  ? 

With  the  result  that  so  far  from  any  of  their 
grievances  being  remedied,  the  individuals  who 
had  the  temerity  to  mention  them  were  either  dis- 


*This  is  a  chapter  from  "The  Labor  War  in  Col- 
orado," by  Ben  Hanford,  1904,  now  out  of  print.  It 
recorded  many  of  the  events  of  the  strikes  of  the  coal 
and  metalliferous  miners  in  Colorado,  including  the 
suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  the  confine- 
ment of  strikers  and  their  friends  in  bullpens  by 
Governor  Peabody's  militia,  the  deportation  of  the 
miners,  and  other  outrages  of  the  ruling  class  which 
culminated  in  the  kidnapping  of  Moyer,  Haywood  and 
Pettibone  two  years  later. 


48  FIGHT  FOB  YOUR  LIFE ! 

charged  from  their  employment  or  placed  in  such 
unfavorable  parts  of  the  mines  that  they  were 
worse  off  than  before. 

The  coal  companies  redressed  the  grievances  of 
the  men  by  the  instant  discharge  of  any  man  who 
had  a  grievance. 

Their  method  of  securing  contented  employees 
was  to  "fire"  every  employee  who  was  discontented. 

The  managers  of  the  coal  companies  could  not 
recognize  the  union.  They  could  recognize  the 
militia,  they  could  recognize  the  deputy  sheriffs, 
they  could  recognize  thugs  and  bad  men,  all  in 
their  employ  and  all  obedient  to  their  orders — 
but  they  could  not  recognize  the  union. 

The  men  who  owned  the  coal  mines  could  recog- 
nize anything  and  anybody  on  earth  except  the 
coal  miner. 

Some  of  the  houses  furnished  the  men  by  the 
companies  were  the  worst  of  shacks.  In  some 
camps  the  companies  did  not  have  sufficient  houses, 
and  leased  the  men  ground  on  which  they  built 
dwellings  of  their  own — the  lease,  however,  re- 
quiring that  they  be  vacated  on  five  days'  notice. 
But  in  one  or  two  camps,  notably  that  of  Primero, 
the  company  had  erected  a  group  of  houses  that 
were  nearly  fit  dwelling  places  for  human  beings. 

The  demands  of  the  men,  as  I  have  said,  were 
for  increased  wages,  the  eight-hour  day,  honest 


"SEE  THE  BEAUTIFUL  HOUSES  !"     49 

weight,  wages  to  be  paid  in  lawful  money,  and 
ventilation  of  the  mines. 

So  far  as  the  employers  through  their  flunkies 
and  factotums  made  any  answer  to  the  demands  of 
the  men,  it  was  one  continued  anthem  in  praise  of 
the  "houses  at  Primero." 

"Increase  our  wages,"  said  the  men.  "Look  at 
those  houses  at  Primero!"  replied  the  bourgeoise 
editor  of  the  organ  of  the  coal  companies. 

"Give  us  the  eight-hour  day,"  said  the  miners. 
"What  nonsense,"  said  the  agents  of  the  compa- 
nies. "You  men  don't  want  the  eight-hour  day. 
Look  at  those  beautiful  houses  at  Primero !" 

"Give  us  a  check  weighman,"  said  the  men,  "so 
that  we  shall  not  be  required  to  mine  3,500  pounds 
of  coal  in  order  to  get  credit  for  2,000  pounds." 

"Hogs  !"  responded  the  members  of  the  Citizens' 
Alliance,  every  last  man  of  them  on  the  side  of 
the  coal  barons.  "You  poor  miserable  children  of 
darkness!  It  is  not  a  check  weighman  that  you 
want.  A  ton  is  a  ton,  isn't  it,  whether  it  weighs 
3,500  or  2,000  pounds  ?  What  can  common  people 
like  you  know  about  honest  weight,  anyhow?  See 
the  beautiful  brick  houses  at  Primero!" 

"Pay  us  our  wages  in  money,  instead  of  scrip 
on  the  company  store,"  said  the  men. 

"Money!  Money?"  yelled  the  chorus  of  little 
business  men  in  the  Citizens'  Alliance,  who  felt 


50  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

themselves  honored  and  flattered  when  a  mine 
manager  spoke  to  them.  ''Money?  For  coal 
miners  ?  You're  a  lot  of  miserable  foreigners ! 
It's  not  money  you  want.  Look  at  the  houses  of 
those  miners  at  Primero!  Some  of  them  are 
painted!  Besides,  we  want  all  the  money  our- 
selves !" 

"Ventilate  the  mines  as  the  law  requires/'  said 
the  men.  "We  must  have  air  or  we  can't  work." 

"Anarchists!"  yelled  the  bourgeoise  chorus. 
"You  are  a  lot  of  Dagoes  and  Mexicans.  You 
want  air?  Look  at  those  houses  at  Primero. 
Some  of  them  have  windows !" 

No  matter  what  these  thirteen  thousand  men 
asked  for,  sufficient  answer  unto  all  to  point  to 
the  little  group  of  cottages,  and  say,  "Look  at  those 
houses  at  Primero !" 


Don't  be  a  Tomato 

MR.  MAN  OUT  OF  A  JOB,  I  want  you  to 
ask  yourself  one  question. 

When  your  wife  or  you  go  to  market 
to  buy  things,  you  are  glad  to  find  a  large  variety 
and  plentiful  supply  of  those  things  for  sale,  are 
you  not?  If  there  is  a  large  variety,  you  can  find 
things  of  just  the  grade  and  quality  that  you  want, 
can't  you  ?  And  if  there  is  a  plentiful  supply,  and 
a  number  of  dealers,  you  can  get  the  things  you 
want  cheap,  can't  you  ?  The  world  over,  you  will 
find  that  when  people  huy  things  they  want  them 
to  be  cheap  in  price. 

For  instance,  suppose  you  go  to  market  to  buy 
tomatoes.  If  you  find  several  marketmen  with 
big  supplies  of  all  kinds  of  tomatoes,  you  know 
that  you  can  get  a  bargain.  If  some  of  the  toma- 
toes are  so  ripe  that  they  will  not  keep  for  more 
than  a  day  or  so,  you  know  that  you  can  buy  toma- 
toes cheap. 

Now,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  just  remember 
this  one  thing — when  you  huy  tomatoes  you  want 
tomatoes  to  be  cheap.  Remember  that  men  the 
world  over,  when  they  buy  things,  want  the  price 
to  be  low.  Remember,  further,  that  so  long  as 


52  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

you  are  going  to  buy  tomatoes  you  would  never 
do  anything  to  raise  their  price,  would  you  ? 


Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  this  is  to  you. 

At  times  you  have  no  doubt  wondered  why  you 
are  out  of  work.  It  has  seemed  to  you  cruel  and 
unjust  that  a  man  able  and  willing  to  work  at 
useful  and  productive  labor  should  not  be  allowed 
to  do  so. 

You  have  wondered  why  the  "rich"  men  of  the 
country  did  not  employ  you  and  the  millions  of 
your  unemployed  fellows. 

You  have  wondered  why  Republican  city  officials 
did  nothing  for  the  unemployed — except  to  have 
the  Republican  police  club  them,  as  in  Chicago. 
Then  you  have  wondered  why  Democratic  city 
officials  did  nothing  for  the  unemployed — except 
to  have  the  Democratic  police  club  them,  as  in 
New  York.  These  two  parties  are  always  (appar- 
ently) at  war  with  each  other.  Why  does  not  one 
of  them  help  the  unemployed,  and  so  gain  a  great 
political  advantage  and  victory  over  the  other? 
But  don't  forget  the  tomatoes. 

If  city  officials  will  do  nothing  for  the  unem- 
ployed, why  is  it  that  state  officials  will  not  assist 
them?  Don't  forget  the  tomatoes. 

If  neither  city  nor  state  officials  will  help  the 


DON'T   BE   A   TOMATO  53 

hungry  man  out  of  work,  why  not  the  national 
government?    Don't  forget  the  tomatoes. 


The  last  session  of  Congress  appropriated  over 
a  billion  dollars  for  a  single  year's  government 
expenses.  But  not  a  penny  was  appropriated  for 
the  relief  of  the  unemployed.  Don't  forget  the 
tomatoes. 

The  national  convention  of  the  Eepublican 
Party  met,  adopted  a  platform,  nominated  can- 
didates for  President  and  Vice-President — but  did 
nothing  for  the  jobless  man. 

The  national  convention  of  the  Democratic 
Party  met,  adopted  a  platform,  nominated  candi- 
dates for  President  and  Vice-President — but  did 
nothing  for  the  jobless  man. 

Mr.  Man  Out  of  Work,  have  you  asked  why 
city  officials,  state  officials  and  national  officials 
have  done  nothing  to  supply  you  with  work? 


Have  you  asked  why  the  national  conventions  of 
the  Republican  and  Democratic  Parties  gave  no 
consideration  to  you  and  six  millions  of  others 
Avho  are  looking  for  work  in  this  United  States  of 
Rockefeller  prosperity?  Don't  forget  the  toma- 
toes. 


54  FIGHT  FOE  YOUE  LIFE! 

There  is  plenty  of  work  that  should  be  done  in 
the  United  States — public  buildings,  libraries, 
books,  school  books,  roads,  bridges,  irrigation, 
docks,  river  and  harbor  improvements,  canals — 
things  innumerable  that  need  to  be  done  all  over 
this  great  land. 

And  there  is  plenty  of  money  to  do  it  with. 
The  Eepublican  Convention  solemnly  declared  that 
this  country  was  worth  $110,000,000,000— and 
nearly  every  dollar  of  it  subject  to  taxation. 
Plenty  of  money  to  be  had  to  employ  every  idle 
man  in  the  whole  nation. 


Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  why  did  not  these  offi- 
cials and  parties  do  something  to  give  you  em- 
ployment? Do  you  remember  the  tomatoes?  So 
long  as  you  buy  tomatoes,  you  would  not  do  any- 
thing to  raise  their  price,  would  you? 

Now,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  just  take  a  look 
at  the  men  who  control  the  Eepublican  and  Demo- 
cratic Parties.  The  influential  men  of  both  par- 
ties are  employers  of  labor,  are  they  not  ?  An  em- 
ployer of  labor  buys  labor,  doesn't  he  ?  Now,  just 
remember  the  tomatoes,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job. 
So  long  as  you  could  not  get  tomatoes  unless  you 
bought  them,  you  would  not  help  to  raise  the  price, 
would  you? 


DON'T   BE   A   TOMATO  55 

So  with  the  capitalist.  Some  capitalists  sell 
one  thing,  some  sell  another  thing,  and  some  sell 
many  things.  But  there  is  one  thing  that  all 
capitalists  must  buy.  That  is  labor. 


One  capitalist  owns  a  coal  mine  and  sells  coal 
— he  wants  the  price  of  coal  to  be  high. 

Another  capitalist  owns  a  railroad — he  wants 
the  price  of  transportation  to  be  high. 

Another  capitalist  owns  a  department  store — 
he  wants  the  price  of  merchandise  to  be  high. 
These  capitalists  sell  coal,  they  sell  transportation, 
they  sell  merchandise. 

But  there  is  one  thing  the  capitalist  never  sells 
— there  is  one  thing  the  capitalist  always  buys. 

The  capitalist  who  owns  the  coal  mine  must  buy 
the  labor  of  the  miners. 

The  capitalist  who  owns  the  railway  must  buy 
the  labor  of  the  railway  workers. 

The  capitalist  who  owns  the  department  store 
must  buy  the  labor  of  the  clerks  and  errand  boys 
and  girls  and  floor  walkers. 
_  Always  and  everywhere  the  capitalist  must  buy 
labor. 

Now,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  don't  forget  the 
tomatoes.  When  you  buy  tomatoes  the  price  can- 
not be  too  low  to  suit  you,  can  it? 


56  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

So  with  the  capitalist.  He  buys  labor.  The 
price  cannot  be  too  low  to  suit  him. 

Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  you  would  think  your- 
self a  fool  to  raise  the  price  of  tomatoes  when  you 
buy  tomatoes. 

So  would  the  capitalist  be  a  fool  to  raise  the 
price  of  labor  when  he  buys  labor.  Yet  that  is 
what  you  expect  him  to  do. 

That  is  what  you  ask  him  to  do.  You  are  sur- 
prised when  he  doesn't  do  it. 

Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  if  there  are  few  toma- 
toes in  the  market,  the  price  is  high;  if  there  are 
many  tomatoes  in  the  market,  the  price  is  low.  If 
some  of  the  tomatoes  are  so  ripe  they  will  not 
keep  another  day,  the  price  is  very  low.  When 
you  go  to  market  as  a  buyer  of  tomatoes  you  want 
to  find  lots  of  tomatoes  there,  some  of  them  dead 
ripe,  and  the  price  very  low. 

So  with  the  capitalist.  When  he  comes  to  mar- 
ket to  buy  labor,  he  wants  to  find  many  unem- 
ployed laborers  (skilled  and  unskilled)  ready  to 
sell  their  labor,  so  that  he  can  buy  all  the  labor 
he  wants.  When  the  capitalist  comes  to  market  to 
buy  labor,  he  wants  to  find  some  unemployed 
laborers  dead  ripe  (hungry),  so  that  he  can  buy 
all  the  labor  he  wants  cheap.  The  man  who  can't 
eat  until  he  gets  work  will  take  a  job  of  work 
cheap. 


DON'T   BE   A   TOMATO  57 

Now,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  do  you  understand 
why  it  is  that  the  Kepublican  and  Democratic 
Parties  will  do  nothing  for  the  unemployed?  I 
do  not  say  that  all  the  men  in  those  parties  are 
capitalists.  But  I  do  say  that  capitalists  control 
both  of  those  parties.  And  you  know  it.  You 
need  not  take  my  word  for  it.  There  are  working- 
men  in  both  parties.  The  workingmen  are  al- 
lowed to  furnish  the  votes.  But  employers  of 
labor,  big  and  little,  absolutely  control  both  old 
parties.  And  employers  of  labor  are  buyers  of 
labor.  And  buyers  of  labor  want  labor  to  be 
cheap.  And  in  the  long  run  labor  will  be  cheap 
in  just  the  proportion  that  laborers  are  out  of  work. 

So,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  why  should  you  ex- 
pect political  officials  and  parties  who  buy  labor 
to  help  the  unemployed  ?  Suppose  the  federal 
government  gave  work  to  all  the  unemployed. 
Where  would  the  capitalist  find  labor  when  he 
wanted  it?  He  would  have  to  outbid  the  govern- 
ment to  get  men.  He  would  have  to  pay  a  high 
price  when  he  bought  labor.  He  no  more  desires 
to  pay  a  high  price  for  labor  than  you  desire  to 
pay  a  high  price  for  tomatoes.  If  the  unem- 
ployed were  supplied  with  work,  not  only  would 
the  capitalist  have  to  pay  a  high  price  for  any 
additional  labor  he  might  employ,  but  if  there 
were  no  unemployed  the  men  now  at  work  would 


58  FIGHT  FOB  YOUR  LIFE ! 

immediately  demand  a  raise  in  wages.  And  if 
there  were  no  unemployed  the  capitalist  would 
have  to  give  the  raise  demanded  or  cease  business. 


Now,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  you  really  don't 
think  the  capitalist  wants  to  raise  wages,  do  you  ? 
You  know  if  he  does  want  to  raise  wages,  there  is 
nothing  to  stop  him  now,  is  there  ?  Also,  you 
know  what  it  takes  to  make  a  capitalist  raise  wages, 
don't  you?  It  takes  power:  the  power  of  labor 
organized,  and  strong  enough  to  beat  him  with 
strike  and  boycott. 

Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job,  there  is  a  political  party 
that,  so  far  as  it  has  and  gains  power,  will  at  all 
times  look  out  for  the  unemployed.  But  the  polit- 
ical party  which  has  at  heart  the  interest  of  the 
unemployed  is  not  controlled  by  capitalists.  It  is 
not  controlled  by  men  who  buy  labor.  The  only 
political  party  which  will  provide  work  for  the 
jobless  man  is  the  political  party  which  is  con- 
trolled by  workingmen — men  who  sell  labor. 

That  party  is  the  Socialist  Party.  Eead  its 
platform  and  demands,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job, 
and  you  will  find  that  you  and  your  six  million 
fellows  were  not  forgotten  by  the  men  and  women 
who  composed  the  national  convention  of  the  So- 
cialist Party. 


DON'T   BE   A   TOMATO  59 

Don't  forget  the  tomatoes,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a 
Job. 

A  green  tomato  will  keep  good  for  two  or  three 
weeks  in  a  cool,  dark  place,  and  it  requires  neither 
food  nor  drink.  But  a  green  (or  ripe)  working- 
man  out  of  a  job  won't  keep  two  or  three  weeks 
without  food  or  drink.  Next  election  you  can 
vote  for  the  party  controlled  by  the  men  who  sell 
their  labor  and  want  high  wages,  or  you  can  vote 
for  the  parties  controlled  by  the  men  who  buy 
labor  and  want  to  buy  it  cheap. 

Don't  be  a  tomato  and  vote  the  Eepublican  or 
Democratic  ticket  for  the  benefit  of  the  capitalists 
who  buy  labor. 

Be  a  man  and  vote  for  the  ticket  of  the  Socialist 
Party  and  work  to  bring  about  a  day  in  which 
men  and  women  will  not  be  sold  in  the  market  like 
green,  and  ripe,  and  over-ripe  tomatoes. 

Don't  be  a  tomato,  Mr.  Man  Out  of  a  Job. 


The  James   Boys;   or,  Modern 
Law  and  Order* 

ONCE  Upon  a  Time,  said  the  Young  Ob- 
server, there  lived  two  men  who  were  de- 
servedly notorious,  if  not  famous.  They 
were  known  as  the  James  Boys,  Frank  and  Jesse 
James,  brothers,  and  both  were  strong-limbed, 
keen  of  eye,  and  had  what  is  sometimes  called 
Nerve. 

Each  was  a  crack  shot  with  rifle  or  revolver, 
and  Jesse  could  with  the  latter  weapon  hit  a  nail 
on  the  head  or  a  man  in  the  heart  at  a  distance  of 
fifty  paces  easily,  with  certainty,  and,  if  called 
upon,  with  most  rapid  succession.  But  he  never 
practised  much  on  nail-heads,  preferring,  like 
a  True  and  Strenuous  Sportsman,  Live  Game. 

In  addition  to  their  splendid  physical  qualities, 
the  James  Boys  were  great  on  morality,  the  Rights 
of  Property,  and  such  things,  and  took  especial 
pride  in  themselves  as  Exponents  of  Law  and 
Order.  But,  alas!  Like  many  other  great  men, 
they  lived  behind  their  time,  and  their  theories 


•A   chapter    from    "Railroading    in    the    United 
States,"  by  Ben  Hanford,  1901,  out  of  print. 


THE  JAMES  BOYS  61 

were  little  understood  and  sadly  unappreciated. 
Some  of  the  Most  Respectable  People  denounced 
their  notion  of  Property  Eights,  and  to  practically 
carry  out  their  Philosophy  of  Law  and  Order  they 
were  often  compelled  to  resort  to  the  most  Strenu- 
ous measures. 

You  see  it  was  this  way,  continued  the  Young 
Observer.  Frank  and  Jesse  James  were  often  in 
need  of  funds,  and  to  supply  themselves  they 
sometimes  resorted  to  what  is  called  (most  vul- 
garly, to  be  sure)  Robbing  banks,  stages,  railroad 
trains,  and  so  on,  by  the  most  Crude  and  Plebeian 
methods.  I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  anything 
wrong  in  robbing  a  bank;  everybody — that  is  to 
say,  all  really  Respectable  people  (and  I  flatter 
myself  that  I  am  so  classified,  said  the  Young 
Observer) — recognizes  the  natural  and  inalienable 
right  of  a  man  and  a  gentleman  to  rob  a  bank  or 
a  railroad  train.  But  he  must  always  act  in 
accord  with  the  rules  of  the  game.  And  the  two 
primary  rules  are,  first,  before  robbing  a  bank,  a 
man  must  have  properly  qualified  himself,  either 
by  having  been  born  Respectable,  by  having  Re- 
spectability thrust  upon  him,  or  by  having  achieved 
Respectability;  no  man  has  any  right  to  rob  a 
bank,  or  even  a  stage  coach,  unless  he  has  received 
his  degree  from  a  high-class  institution  of  learn- 
ing and  taken  a  conspicuous  part  in  at  least  one 


62  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

campaign  as  an  advocate  of  sound  money.  (It  is 
easily  to  be  seen  by  even  the  dullest  mind  that  if 
a  man  is  to  be  robbed  of  his  money,  it  is  of  the 
highest  importance  that  the  money  should  be 
Sound  money.)  These  institutions  and  opportu- 
nities, throughout  the  United  States  at  least,  are 
open  to  all  alike  on  the  same  and  equal  terms,  so 
that  no  citizen  is  prevented  from  acquiring  these 
essential  qualifications,  and  none  of  his  Inalien- 
able rights  are  alienated.  The  second  rule  of  the 
bank-robbing  game  requires  that,  in  addition  to 
his  indubitable  Respectability,  the  robber  must  do 
his  Work  from  the  Inside.  Any  other  procedure 
is  not  only  bad  form,  but  can  only  be  properly  de- 
scribed as  Vulgarity,  and  utterly  unworthy  of  a 
true  Gentleman. 

The  education  of  the  James  Boys  had  been 
sadly  neglected,  went  on  the  Young  Observer,  and, 
reasoning  from  their  inner  consciousness,  and  al- 
ways remembering  that  this  was  a  Free  Country, 
they  proceeded  to  enforce  their  ideas  of  the  Sacred 
Rights  of  Property  and  Law  and  Order  by  the 
methods  most  convenient  to  their  hands — generally 
six-shooters. 

This  was  the  way  of  it :  Frank  and  Jesse  Jamts 
would  board  a  passenger  train  at  some  convenient 
city,  first  taking  care  to  purchase  tickets.  Both 
were  scrupulously  honest,  and  made  it  a  point  of 


THE  JAMES  BOYS  63 

honor  to  pay  their  car  fare.  When  the  train  was 
well  under  way,  Jesse  would  go  forward  to  the 
engine  and  request  the  engineer  to  stop  the  train, 
in  order  that  he  and  his  brother  Frank  might 
have  an  opportunity  to  give  the  passengers  a  little 
lecture,  with  practical  illustrations,  on  Law  and 
Order.  The  engineers  always  complied  with  any 
request  made  by  Jesse,  knowing  that  Law  and 
Order  was  his  strong  point,  and  that  he  was  not 
to  be  trifled  with  on  the  subject.  Then  Jesse 
would  march  the  engineer  back  to  a  passenger 
coach,  always  giving  him  a  front  seat,  that  he 
might  not  miss  any  of  the  lecture.  Having  seated 
these  gentlemen  (I  forgot  to  mention,  said  the 
Young  Observer,  that  Jesse  always  invited  the 
fireman  and  conductor  of  the  train  to  join  the 
engineer,  and  they  never  refused),  as  I  said,  hav- 
ing seated  these  gentlemen,  Jesse  would  stand  in 
the  front  door  of  the  car,  with  a  cocked  six- 
shooter  in  each  hand  (Jesse  never  was  able  to 
make  his  lecture  effective  without  his  six-shooters 
for  pointers  and  to  give  the  proper  punctuation), 
and  deliver  his  justly  celebrated  lecture,  as  fol- 
lows: 

"Hands  up!  ladies  and  gentlemen.  I  am  Jesse 
James.  This  is  my  brother  Frank.  We  are  here 
as  Exponents  of  Law  and  Order.  You  all  believe 
in  Law  and  Order.  I  am  the  Law,  and  it  is  my 


64  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

Order  that  you  hold  up  your  hands.  If  any  gen- 
tleman (or  lady)  allows  his  (or  her)  hands  to 
drop,  I  will  blow  the  Top  of  his  (or  her)  Head 
Off.  You  will  understand  that  I  am  opposed  to 
all  violence,  and  if  you  keep  order  there  will  be 
no  bloodshed.  My  brother  Frank  will  pass 
through  the  car  with  a  Bag,  and  any  jewelry  or 
money  you  have  about  you  he  will  put  in  the  Bag. 
It  will  be  entirely  Safe.  I  have  no  references 
with  me,  but  I  assure  you  that  I  am  Jesse  James, 
and  I  feel  confident  that  you  can  trust  me  im- 
plicitly. No  back  talk.  If  you  talk  back,  I  will 
treat  you  just  as  I  would  if  you  took  your  hands 
down — that  is,  I  will  blow  the  Top  of  your 
Head .  Yes,  this  is  a  Free  Country.  I  be- 
lieve in  Free  Speech.  You  can  talk  all  you  Wish 
when  I  am  gone.  No  doubt,  you  would,  one  and 
all,  like  to  make  a  few  remarks.  No;  this  is  not 
a  lecture  on  the  Tariff ;  though  the  Tariff  is  a  Tax. 
Yes;  the  Money  Question  is  an  important  One. 
But,  friends,  and  I  trust  I  may  call  you  so,  there 
is  no  good  reason  for  antagonism  between  us;  our 
interests  are  Mutual;  you  have  my  solemn  assur- 
ance that  there  will  be  no  trouble  so  long  as  You 
Obey  the  Law  and  Keep  Order — or  Off  goes  the 
Top  of  Your  Head.  All  right,  Frank?  So  soon? 
This  is  such  a  splendid  audience — so  Orderly,  and 
inspired  with  such  a  Respect  for  the  Law — that  I 


THE  JAMES  BOYS  65 

hate  to  leave  them.  Ah,  well — every  happy  mo- 
ment has  an  end.  Come  on,  Frank.  Good-night, 
dear  friends,  good-night." 

Frank  and  Jesse  gave  this  entertainment  many 
times,  and  to  audiences  of  the  most  varied  char- 
acteristics. Jesse  became  very  proficient  in  his 
Delivery,  and  wherever  his  lecture  was  delivered 
it  made  a  Deep  and  Lasting  Impression  upon  all 
who  heard  it. 

But,  alas  for  the  man  who  lives  behind  his  time ! 
Some  Eminent  Gentlemen — competitors  of  the 
James  Boys — who  were  in  the  Law  and  Order 
business  on  Their  Own  Private  Account,  offered  a 
reward  for  Jesse,  Dead  or  Alive,  and  one  day  he 
who  had  always  striven  to  carry  out  his  Crude 
theories  of  Law  and  Order,  face  to  face,  and  Man 
to  Men,  was  shot  in  the  Back  and  instantly  Killed. 

Think  what  Jesse  James  might  have  done  had 
he  adopted  Modern  Methods.  But  at  least  he  died 
in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood.  He  did  not  live  to 
work  the  James  in  literature,  nor  was  he  ever 
elected  to  the  United  States  Senate  "as  an  inci- 
dent in  his  career  as  a  railroad  man." 

This,  said  the  Young  Observer,  brings  me  to 
Law  and  Order  and  Modern  Methods. 

The  most  important  point  about  Modern  Meth- 
ods is,  before  stealing  from  railway  passengers, 
first  Steal  the  Kailway. 


"We  Propose  to  Run  Our  Own 
Business  in  Our  Own  Way!" 

(  ( "VII  7"  E  propose  to  run  our  own  business  in 
\\  our  own  way."  So  says  the  presi- 
dent of  the  big  corporation  when  his 
thousands  of  employees  ask  an  increase  in  wages. 

"We  propose  to  run  our  own  business  in  our 
own  way."  So  says  the  senior  partner  in  the  firm 
when  their  hundreds  of  employees  ask  shorter 
hours. 

"I  propose  to  run  my  own  business  in  my  own 
way."  So  says  the  little  cockroach  capitalist  when 
his  half-dozen  employees  ask  half-way  decent  con- 
ditions. 

Then  all  together: 

"We  propose  to  run  our  own  business  in  our 
own  way." 

St.  George  F.  Baer,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  the 
president  of  the  Typotheta?,  the  president  of  the 
Mine  Owners'  Association,  the  editor  of  every  scab 
newspaper,  the  owner  of  a  scab  subway,  the  owner 
of  every  trolley  line,  railway,  rolling  mill,  shoe 
factory,  hat  factory,  bake  shop — every  last  one  of 
them  sits  up  on  his  hind  legs  and  howls  like  a  wolf 


"OUIl  OWN  BUSINESS!"  67 

or  whines  like  a  coyote,  "We  are  going  to  run  our 
own  business  in  our  own  way." 

Well,  why  don't  you  run  it  in  your  own  way  ? 

When  could  a  boss  have  a  better  chance  to  run 
his  business  in  his  own  way  than  while  his  em- 
ployees are  on  strike? 

If  Mr.  Baer  wanted  to  run  his  business  in  his 
own  way,  why  didn't  he  go  right  down  under 
ground  and  dig  his  own  coal  out  of  his  own  mine 
when  his  miners  were  on  strike  in  1902?  He 
would  have  been  entirely  safe.  The  eleven  thou- 
sand militiamen  of  Pennsylvania  could  have  "pro- 
tected" him  and  all  the  coal  he  might  have  dug. 

Why,  when  his  men  went  on  strike,  didn't 
August  Belmont  go  down  to  the  subway  and  go 
to  work,  instead  of  going  down  to  Florida  to  go 
fishing  ? 

If  all  you  union-hating  gentry  want  to  run  your 
business  in  your  own  way,  why  don't  you  run  it  ? 

If  you  want  to  run  your  business  in  your  own 
way,  what  do  you  hire  scabs  for  ? 

If  you  want  to  run  your  own  business  in  your 
own  way,  what  do  you  hire  any  one  for? 

If  a  member  of  the  Typothetse  wants  to  run  his 
own  business  in  his  own  way,  why  does  he  hire 
printers,  pressmen,  lithographers? 

If  the  owner  of  a  newspaper  wants  to  run  his 
own  business  in  his  own  way,  why  doesn't  he  sit 


68  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

right  down  and  write  his  newspaper,  and  edit  his 
newspaper,  and  then  make  the  paper  his  newspaper 
is  printed  on — all  in  his  very  own  way  ?  Then  let 
him  set  the  type  in  his  own  way,  and  read  the 
proof  in  his  own  way,  and  make  up  the  forms  in 
his  own  way.  Then  let  him  put  the  forms  on  the 
press  and  wash  and  ink  the  rollers  in  his  own  way. 
Then  he  can  fire  the  boiler,  get  up  steam,  run  the 
press  and  print  his  precious  paper — all  in  his  own 
way.  And  let  him  read  it  himself — in  his  own 
way. 

Who  or  what  would  stop  him?  He  would  not 
need  even  a  Gatling-gun  injunction. 

"We  propose  to  run  our  own  business  in  our 
own  way."  So  you  say — all  you  union-haters. 
And  you  lie — you  every  one  of  you  lie,  and  know 
you  lie,  when  you  say  it. 

YOU  do  not  propose  to  run  your  own  business 
in  your  own  way. 

You  propose  your  business  shall  be  run  in 
YOUR  way,  all  right.  But  you  propose  some  one 
else  shall  run  it,  while  YOU  get  the  profit. 

That  some  one  else  that  you  propose  to  have 
run  your  business  is  a  WORKINGMAN,  and  if 
HE  does  not  willingly  run  YOUR  business  for 
you  in  your  own  way,  and  so  far  forgets  himself 
as  to  ask  for  something  it  is  not  to  your  interest 
to  give,  and  strikes  in  an  effort  to  get  what  he 


"OUR  OWN  BUSINESS!"  69 

asks  for,  you  do  not  even  try  to  run  your  own 
business. 

Quite  the  contrary.  Instead  of  going  to  work 
and  running  your  own  business,  you  do  your  best 
to  starve,  club  or  shoot  that  workingman  back 
into  your  shop  to  run  it  for  you. 

So  far,  Mr.  Union-Hater,  you  have  had  pretty 
fair  success  in  making  workingmen  run  your  busi- 
ness for  you  in  your  own  way.  But  there  will 
come  a  day.  You  don't  believe  it?  Ask  the 
ghosts  of  ten  thousand  tyrants  of  ten  thousand 
years  that  are  past. 

If  a  man  wants  to  run  his  business  in  his  own 
way,  the  first  necessary  thing  for  him  to  do  is  to 
go  to  some  place  where  there  are  no  other  men — 
that  means  the  desert.  Then  he  can  indeed  run 
his  business  in  his  own  way.  He  can  do  every- 
thing just  as  he  likes.  No  one  will  interfere  with 
him.  No  troublesome  union  workingmen  will  ask 
higher  wages  or  shorter  hours.  Nor  will  they 
boycott  his  product  for  lack  of  the  label. 

Only  the  isolated  man  can — or  should — have  a 
business  of  his  own.  Only  the  solitary  man  can — 
or  should — run  his  business  in  his  own  way. 

Mr.  Union-Hater,  one  of  these  days  the  work- 
ingmen who  run  your  business  will  cease  to  ask 
you  for  better  wages  or  shorter  hours,  or  any  of 
these  things  that  trouble  you  so. 


70  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

One  of  these  days  men  who  run  your  business 
FOR  YOU  will  discover  that  if  they  can  run  it 
FOR  YOU  they  can  ran  it  FOR  THEMSELVES. 
Then,  instead  of  asking  you  for  more  wages,  they 
will  ask  you  for  the  business. 

Better  still,  they  may  TAKE  IT  WITHOUT 
THE  ASKING. 

"I  propose  to  run  my  own  business  in  my  own 
way." 

Such  a  man  should  go  to  the  desert — and  run  it. 


The  Free  American  Working- 
man  and  His  Sacred  Right 
to  Work* 

ME.  FREE  AMERICAN  WORKINGMAN, 
you  hear  a  great  deal  from  time  to  time 
about  your  "sacred  right  to  work."  The 
talk  generally  comes  from  the  learned  editors  of 
our  great  papers  and  from  eminent  judges  of  our 
Supreme  Courts.  You  hear  most  of  this  talk  about 
your  precious  "right  to  work"  when  you  are  on 
strike  and  refuse  to  work. 

Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  did  you  ever 
stop  to  think  for  half  a  minute  even  about  your 
"right  to  work." 

Let  us  be  personal  and  speak  plainly. 

The  writer  of  this  is  a  printer,  a  typesetter. 
He  is  one  of  those  fellows  who  is  supposed  to  be  a 
"free  American  workingman,"  and  like  you  to  be 
in  possession  of  that  precious  treasure,  the  "right 
to  work." 

But  though  a  printer,  he  does  not  own  a  print- 
ing office,  or  a  typesetting  machine,  or  a  printing 


*  From  a  leaflet  written  for  Local  New  York  sev- 
eral years  ago. 


72  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

press,  or  any  of  the  machinery  or  tools  essential 
in  the  printing  industry. 

Now,  if  this  man  is  to  work  at  the  printing 
trade,  he  must  have  the  tools  of  the  trade  to  work 
with.  You  can  say  that  he  has  the  "right  to 
work"  as  a  printer,  and  you  can  call  him  a  "free 
American  workingman,"  hut  how  can  he  exercise 
his  "right  to  work"  when  he  has  nothing  with 
which  to  work? Where  does  his  "freedom"  come  in? 

His  "freedom"  consists  in  this — if  he  does  not 
work,  he  will  starve,  unless  he  can  break  into  jail. 
And  his  "right  to  work"  consists  in  this — he  has 
a  "right  to  work"  IF  some  one  will  hire  him  to 
work. 

This  printer,  being  a  free  man  in  a  free  coun- 
try, is  free  to  work  or  not,  just  as  he  pleases.  But 
if  he  pleases  not  to  work,  he  must  live  without 
eating,  or  go  to  jail  to  get  fed. 

So  you  see,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman, 
you  have  no  freedom  NOT  to  work.  Work  you 
must  have  in  order  to  live. 

But  you  are  not  the  owner  of  the  things  neces- 
sary to  work  with.  You  do  not  own  mines,  mills, 
factories,  foundries,  railways,  land,  machinery  or 
tools — you  own  none  of  the  things  which  a  man 
must  have  in  order  to  work. 

Where,  then,  is  YOUR  "right  to  work"? 

Why,  bless  you,  you  have  a  sacred  "right  to 


FKEE    AMERICAN    WORKINGMAN    73 

work"  for  anybody  who  will  hire  you.  And  the 
only  people  who  can  and  will  hire  you  to  work  for 
them  are  the  people  who  do  own  mines,  mills,  fac- 
tories, foundries,  railroads,  workshops,  land,  ma- 
chinery and  tools — the  people  who  own  the  things 
which  a  man  must  have  to  work  with. 

So,  you  see,  YOU  are  neither  a  "free  American 
workingman/'  nor  have  you  the  "right  to  work." 

First  you  have  got  to  work  or  starve,  and  sec- 
ond you  have  got  to  work  for  another  man  on  his 
terms — a  negro  chattel  slave  had  the  same  freedom 
to  work  or  starve,  and  the  same  sacred  "right  to 
work"  for  another  man  on  the  other  man's  terms, 
that  you  free,  sovereign  American  workingmen  are 
possessed  of. 

When  you  hear  learned  editors  and  eminent  ju- 
rists talking  ahout  the  "free  American  working- 
man"  and  his  sacred  "right  to  work,"  what  do  you 
suppose  they  mean? 

Do  you  think  they  mean  that  you  are  free  to 
work  or  not?  or  that  you  really  have  a  "right  to 
work"  as  you  will? 

Certainly  not.  By  a  "free"  American  working- 
man"  they  mean  a  man  who  is  free  to  starve  if  he 
cannot  get  employment,  and  by  the  sacred  "right 
to  work"  they  mean  a  man's  sacred  right  to  be  a 
scab  and  take  your  job  when  you  go  out  on  strike 
for  better  pay. 


74  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE! 

The  only  people  in  "free"  America  who  have  a 
"right  to  work"  are  the  fellows  who  own  the  mines, 
mills,  factories,  foundries,  railroads,  workshops, 
land,  tools  and  machinery  of  production — they 
have  the  "right  to  work,"  but  they  don't  have  to 
work  because  you  have  to  work  for  them,  and  do 
your  own  work  and  theirs  also — and  for  payment 
you  get  enough  to  enable  you  to  live  (or  exist) 
and  bring  enough  children  into  the  world  to  take 
up  your  task  and  do  your  work  for  them  when  you 
are  dead  and  gone. 

Now,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  you 
have  one  advantage  that  the  chattel  slave  never 
.had — though  he  was  always  sure  of  a  job,  which 
is  something  you  are  never  sure  of.  But  you 
have  in  'your  hands  a  weapon  with  which  you  can 
free  yourself  from  your  slavery.  You  white  and 
black  wage  slaves  of  the  present  day  have  the  bal- 
lot in  your  hand,  and  each  one  of  you  can  cast  a 
vote  as  large  and  which  will  count  as  much  as 
your  master's — and  there  are  many  of  you  and 
your  masters  are -few.*  We  Socialists  want  all  of 
you  workingmen  to  get  into  a  workingman's  polit- 
ical party,  capture  the  political  power,  enact  such 


*  Since  the  leaflet  was  written  many  changes  in 
the  laws  have  deprived  both  white  and  black  working- 
men  of  the  franchise.  If  the  great  questions  of  to-day 
are  to  be  settled  by  the  ballot  workingmen  should 
hasten  to  make  use  of  it. 


FREE    AMERICAN    WORKINGMAN     75 

laws  as  will  make  the  mines,  mills,  factories,  foun- 
dries, workshops,  land,  railways,  tools  and  machin- 
ery for  the  production  of  wealth  your  collective 
property — and  then,  when  you  workingmen  are  the 
owners  of  the  things  with  which  you  work,  then 
you  will  be  "free  American  workingmen,"  then 
you  will  indeed  have  a  "right  to  work,"  and 
NEVER  BEFORE. 


$1,318-$6,194-$120,000,000,000 

LEGRAND  POWERS,  for  years  chief  statis- 
tician of  the  United  States  Census  Bureau, 
is  the  author  of  an  article  on  the  wealth 
of  the  United  States  in  the  "American  Journal 
of  Sociology"  (September,  1908),  published  by 
Chicago  (Rockefeller)  University. 

Mr.  Powers  considers  official  statements  of  the 
property  value  of  the  country,  and  declares  they 
are  too  small,  giving  facts  and  figures  in  detail  for 
his  opinion.  The  official  Federal  statement  of  the 
property  values  of  the  United  States  for  1890  was 
$65,000,000,000;  for  1900  it  was  $88,000,000,000, 
and  for  1904  it  was  $107,104,211,917.  It  will  be 
recalled  that  Senator  Burrows  in  his  address  as 
temporary  chairman  of  the  National  Republican 
Convention  at  Chicago,  in  1908,  declared  the  value 
of  our  national  wealth  to  be  $108,000,000,000. 

Mr.  Powers  proves  these  figures  too  low,  and 
states  that  the  national  wealth  at  the  present  time 
(1908)  is  certainly  not  less  than  $117,000,000,000, 
and  is  probably  as  much  as  $120,000,000,000. 

Taking  $120,000,000,000  as  the  correct  figure, 
and  dividing  that  sum  by  the  population  of  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time  (according  to 


$1,318— $6,194— $120,000,000,000          77 

the  most  reliable  estimates)  and  we  have  $1,318 
as  the  wealth  of  the  country  per  capita.  That  is 
to  say,  if  it  could  all  be  divided  evenly  and  an 
equal  share  given  to  every  inhabitant,  there  would 
be  $1,318  for  every  man,  woman  and  child.  There 
would  be  $1,318  for  the  baby  born  last  night. 

According  to  the  census  of  1900,  the  average 
size  of  families  in  the  United  States  was  4.7  per- 
sons in  each  family.  On  that  basis,  if  our  nation- 
al wealth  was  distributed  equally  among  all  the 
different  families,  there  would  be  $6,194  for  each 
household. 

The  wealth  is  here,  Mr.  Free  American  Work- 
ingman— to  the  extent  of  $120,000,000,000.  Your 
labor  produced  it.  But  it  isn't  yours.  The  wealth 
that  your  labor  produced  belongs  to  your  landlord, 
it  belongs  to  your  employer,  it  belongs  to  the  bond- 
holders and  stockholders  of  the  United  States — in 
short,  to  the  capitalist  class. 


Your  labor,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman, 
has  given  the  country  in  which  you  work  a  value 
of  $120,000,000,000— which  belongs  not  to  you 
who  labor,  but  to  those  who  do  not  labor.  How 
does  it  come  to  be  theirs?  You  must  find  the 
answer  to  that  question,  Mr.  Free  American 
Workingman.  Your  liberty  and  your  life  depend 


78  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

on  your  being  able  to  answer  that  question  correctly. 

Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  the  wealth  of 
this  country  belongs  to  the  capitalist  class  through 
the  power  of  the  government — the  political  power. 
The  capitalists  maintain  their  economic  power 
through  their  political  power.  The  capitalists  get 
their  political  power  through  your  vote,  Mr.  Free 
American  Workingman.  Take  a  look  about  you. 
Can't  you  see  that  the  capitalists  will  vote  for 
Republicans  and  Democrats?  Doesn't  Edward 
Henry  Harriman  say  that  he  does  not  care  which 
is  elected?  Whether  the  Republicans  or  Demo- 
crats win,  Harriman,  the  Railroad  King,  is  sat- 
isfied. Can't  you  see,  Mr.  Free  American  Work- 
ingman, that  Standard  Oil  has  subsidized  both 
parties?  Whether  the  Republicans  win  or  the 
Democrats  win,  John  Davidson  Rockefeller,  the 
Oil  King,  is  satisfied.  He  owns  wealth  to  a  value 
of  more  than  a  billion  dollars,  and  he  owns  the 
Republican  and  Democratic  parties. 

When  United  States  Senator  Julius  Casar  Bur- 
rows (and  other  great  men  in  the  Republican 
party)  talks  about  our  national  wealth  of  more 
than  $108,000,000,000  he  does  not  mean  your 
wealth,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  nor 
mine.  Senator  Burrows  says  our  wealth,  but  he 
means  his  wealth — and  Rockefeller's  wealth  and 
the  wealth  of  the  capitalist  class. 


$1,318— $6,194— $120,000,000,000          79 

Just  as  it  was  your  labor  that  produced  all  that 
$120,000,000,000  of  wealth,  Mr.  Free  American 
Workingman,  so  it  was  your  vote  that  gave  it  to 
Kockefeller,  Burrows  and  the  capitalist  class. 
Just  as  your  vote  has  given  it  to  them  in  the  past, 
so  your  vote  can  give  it  to  yourself  in  the  future. 
The  capitalists  get  the  country's  wealth  through 
their  economic  power,  they  keep  it  through  their 
political  power.  You,  Mr.  Free  American  Work- 
ingman, hy  an  intelligent  use  of  your  vote,  can  take 
the  capitalist's  political  power  away  from  him  and 
get  it  for  yourself.  Then  you  can  use  your  polit- 
ical power  to  take  the  capitalist's  economic  power 
from  him,  and  get  that  power  yourself.  Then  you 
will  be  a  free  man.  Never  before.  But,  Mr. 
Free  American  Workingman,  you  will  never  take 
the  political  power  from  the  capitalist  by  voting 
his  ticket.  If  you  want  the  political  power  for 
yourself  you  must  vote  your  own  ticket. 

Every  vote  for  a  Eepublican  and  every  vote  for 
a  Democrat,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  is 
a  vote  that  your  family  shall  have  less  than  $6,194, 
it  is  a  vote  that  you,  and  your  wife,  and  your  child 
shall  have  less  than  $1,318  of  the  $120,000,000,000 
produced  by  your  labor. 

Every  vote  for  a  Eepublican  and  every  vote  for 
a  Democrat,  Mr.  Free  American  Workingman,  is  a 
vote  that  Kockefeller,  Eogers,  Morgan,  Baer,  Van 


80 


Cleave,  Comer,  Peabody,  Gooding,  the  slave- 
drivers,  the  dividend-lovers,  the  union-haters,  the 
rent-lord,  the  money-lord,  and  the  factory  lord,  the 
capitalists  who  do  no  work,  shall  have  more  of  the 
$120,000,000,000  that  was  produced  by  your  labor. 
A  vote  for  the  Socialist  Party,  Mr.  Free  Amer- 
ican Workingman,  is  a  vote  for  yourself.  It  is  a 
vote  for  better  days  for  your  wife  and  your  child. 
A  vote  for  the  Socialist  ticket,  Mr.  Free  American 
Workingman,  is  a  vote  that  you  shall  have  more 
of  the  $120,000,000,000  produced  by  your  labor. 


Socialist  Convention  Speech* 

IOMRADES:  It  is  well  that  Socialists 
should  hold  their  convention  on  Memorial 
Day. 

Not  only  every  battlefield,,  but  shops  and  mills 
and  mines  the  world  over,  have  been  sanctified 
with  the  blood  of  the  working  class.  From  the 
bondage  of  the  Jews  in  Egypt,  kneading  their 
blood  into  the  clay  and  making  bricks  without 
straw,  and  for  centuries  before  that  time;  from 
the  days  of  the  300,000  workingmen  slaughtered 
with  Spartacus;  from  the  6,000  rebellious  work- 
ingmen crucified  on  the  Appian  Way  in  Borne; 
from  the  33,000  workingmen  and  women  and  chik 
dren  shot  down  like  mad  dogs  in  Paris  within  the 
lifetime  of  many  of  us  here;  and  recalling  in 
America  our  Pullman,  our  Homestead,  our  Coeur 
d'Alenes,  our  Brooklyn  and  our  Colorado,  it  is 
indeed  fitting  that  a  party  of  the  working  class 
should  observe  Memorial  Day. 

Every  year  in  the  railroad  industry  in  the  United 
States  a  larger  number  of  men  are  killed  and 
wounded  than  the  entire  list  of  killed  and  wounded 


*  Address  before  the  New   York   City   Convention, 
May  30,   1905. 


82  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

on  both  sides  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  the 
most  bloody  conflict  of  the  Civil  War.  Every 
year  in  this  glorious  United  States,  and  in  these 
piping  times  of  peace,  we  kill  a  larger  number  of 
men  in  our  mining  and  iron  and  building  indus- 
tries than  went  to  their  death  in  yesterday's  battle 
of  the  sea.*  And  nearly  all  of  those  sunk  or 
slaughtered  thousands  were  men  of  the  working 
class,  leaving  workingmen's  wives  to  be  widows 
and  workingmen's  children  orphans. 

But  our  Christian  civilization  is  not  content  to 
make  war  on  men.  It  drives  the  women  to  the 
factory  and  the  children  to  the  mill,  robbing  them 
of  health  and  life. 

This  is  Memorial  Day,  comrades.  There  is  not 
a  hill  on  earth  that  has  not  beetf  some  working- 
man's  Calvary.  There  is  not  a  clod  on  this  old 
ball  that  has  not  been  wet  with  a  workingman's 
blood. 

Nor  do  our  masters  propose  to  stop  in  their 
slaughter  of  our  class.  They  propose  to  make  of 
this  world  an  industrial  penitentiary,  wherein  you 
and  I  must  work  while  they  hold  the  keys  and  keep 
the  product  of  our  industry.  Workingmen,  look 
at  these  crimson  banners,  and  remember  that  "the 
bluest  blood  is  putrid,  but  the  people's  blood  is 


*  Battle  of  the  Sea  of  Japan,  Russian-Japanese  War, 
in  which  the  Russian  fleet  was  destroyed  or  captured. 


SOCIALIST  CONVENTION   SPEECH  83 

red."  Consecrate  yourselves  anew  to  the  task  of 
liberating  mankind  from  this  last  and  worst  form 
of  slavery — the  slavery  of  the  working  class  to  the 
capitalist  class. 

You  are  here  to-day  to  nominate  a  city  ticket, 
adopt  a  city  platform,  and  make  plans  for  the 
prosecution  of  our  city  campaign.  Capitalism  is 
hell,  and  New  York  is  its  capital  city.  Nearly 
four  million  people  live  within  its  municipal 
boundaries — a  larger  number  than  the  entire  thir- 
teen colonies  which  rebelled  against  Great  Britain 
and  won  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Last  year  our  party  polled  24,536  votes  in  this 
city.  Not  a  large  army,  you  may  say.  But  large 
enough,  fighting  for  the  right,  fighting  in  harmony 
with  economic  progress,  to  fight  our  Bunker  Hill, 
which  we  may  lose  as  the  Colonists  did,  and  later 
to  fight  our  Saratoga  and  our  Yorktown,  which 
we  shall  win  as  the  Colonists  did. 

From  time  to  time  we  meet  those  who  declare 
they  are  "going  our  way,"  and  in  proof  of  their 
sincerity  they  ask  us  to  drop  our  work  for  the 
Co-operative  Commonwealth  and  join  our  forces 
to  theirs  that  we  may  get  something  "right  now/' 
Most  of  the  people  who  think  this  way  are  entirely 
honest,  but  most  of  their  spokesmen  are  entirely 
dishonest.  They  are  not  "going  our  way"  or  they 
would  join  our  movement.  And  they  profess 


84  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

friendship  for  us  only  that  they  may  bestow  upon 
us  the  kiss  of  Judas  and  betray  us. 

We  Social  Democrats*  desire  the  working  class 
to  get  something  "right  now"  as  earnestly  as  any- 
body. We  desire  the  immediate  municipalization 
of  our  street  railways,  gas  and  electric  lights  and 
many  other  things,  and  we  know  that  the  quickest 
way  to  get  these  things  is  to  strike  with  our  bal- 
lots at  the  very  heart  of  the  capitalist  system — to 
strike  at  the  right  of  private  property  in  the  means 
of  production. 

Many  of  those  who  declare  that  they  are  "going 
our  way"  not  only  are  not  going  our  way,  but  say 
they  are  for  the  sole  purpose  of  thwarting  the  labor 
movement  in  its  incidental  and  ultimate  purposes. 
They  are  for  reform  solely  because  Socialism 
threatens  revolution,  and  if  they  could  sidetrack 
the  Socialist  movement  they  then  would  not  grant 
even  a  measure  of  reform. 

So-called  reformers  promise  remedial  measures 
in  order  to  MAINTAIN  CAPITALISM.  We 
Socialists  desire  such  measures  that  the  working 
class  may  gain  strength  to  OVERTHROW  CAP- 
ITALISM. 

In  your  deliberations  here  to-day  do  your  best 
not  to  make  mistakes,  but  if  errors  there  must  be, 


*  In  1905  the  present  Socialist  Party  in  New  York 
was  officially  known  as  the  Social  Democratic  Party. 


SOCIALIST  CONVENTION   SPEECH  85 

then  make  sure  that  they  are  on  the  side  of  making 
our  movement  more  rigidly  a  working-class  move- 
ment— then  in  the  long  run  they  will  not  prove 
to  be  errors. 

Our  party  welcomes  honest  men  from  all  walks 
of  life,  intellectuals,  professionals,  men  of  the 
middle  class,  even  capitalists,  if  they  are  willing 
to  cast  their  lot  with  us  and  work  for  an  emanci- 
pated humanity.  But  the  first  duty,  the  last  duty, 
and  the  only  duty  of  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
is  to  safeguard  and  to  promote  the  interests  of  the 
working  class.  No  matter  who  joins  our  move- 
ment from  other  classes,  they  are  of  NO  AVAIL, 
except  as  they  can  enlighten  and  inspire  the  work- 
ing-class itself.  And  in  so  far  as  we  can  arouse 
the  working  class  to  a  knowledge  of  and  action  in 
their  own  interest  ALL  THE  EEST  OF  THE 
WORLD  SHALL  NOT  PREVAIL  AGAINST 
THEM. 

It  is  true  that  the  Social  Democratic  Party 
wants  votes — but  not  votes  for  the  votes'  sake. 
Back  of  every  vote  we  want  a  man,  with  a  stal- 
wart arm  to  do,  a  heart  that  dares  to  do,  and  a 
mind  that  knows  what  to  do. 

The  Working  Class!  To  awake,  instruct  and 
inspire  and  organize  that  class  is  your  whole  duty. 


Debs 

DEBS.  Big.  Big  body.  Big  brain.  Great 
heart.  Lion  heart.  Indomitable  courage. 
Unconquerable  love  of  his  fellowman. 
Spirit  and  Voice  and  Heart  of  the  Working  Class. 
Spirit  of  Freedom.  Voice  of  Progress  and  Revolu- 
tion. Heart  of  Love.  An  eye  that  sees.  A  brain 
that  comprehends.  Intelligent.  Educated.  Grad- 
uated from  the  common  school  of  the  Class  Strug- 
gle. Given  his  Bachelor's  Degree  by  President 
George  M.  Pullman  and  the  Federal  Army.  Given 
his  Doctor's  Degree  by  Judges  Wood  and  Gross- 
cup  after  post-graduate  work  in  the  University  of 
Woodstock  Jail.  Ever  since  enshrined  in  the 
hearts  of  the  Working  Class.  Debs.  Always  in 
the  front  rank  of  the  battle.  A  sword  arm  that 
has  never  been  lowered.  Debs  and  the  Working 
Class.  Bearing  their  cross  and  wearing  their 
crown  of  thorns.  Debs.  Face  to  the  light.  Often 
mistaken  for  a  day.  Losing  the  path  in  the  dark- 
ness. Back  in  the  highroad  with  the  first  ray  of 
dawn.  Always  face  to  the  light.  Often  licked. 
Never  defeated.  Often  knocked  down.  Never 
knocked  out.  Debs.  For  the  Working  Class  of 
the  World.  In  season  and  out  of  season.  In  jail 


DEBS  87 

and  out  of  jail.  Debs.  Heart  that  beats  for  the 
Working  Class.  Eyes  that  see  for  the  Working 
Class.  Head  that  plans  for  the  Working  Class. 
Hands  that  build  for  the  Working  Class.  Arms 
that  fight  for  the  Working  Class.  That  is  Debs. 
Heart  of  the  Lion  Debs. 


Our  "Impartial"  Judiciary* 

THERE  are  beautiful  and  lovable  but  child- 
like spirits  in  the  labor  movement  who, 
with  admirable  courage,  but  almost  incon- 
ceivable folly,  suffer  under  the  belief  that  William 
D.  Haywood  and  George  A.  Pettibone  had  fair 
trials  before  a  stern  but  impartial  and  disin- 
terested judge.  Such  persons  should  read  the  re- 
marks made  by  the  Hon.  Judge  Fremont  Wood  in 
passing  sentence  of  death  upon  Mr.  Harry  Or- 
chard— after  reading  the  words  of  Judge  Wood, 
one  is  tempted  to  say  the  Hon.  Mr.  Harry  Or- 
chard. 

Orchard,  having  been  convicted  of  murder  in 
the  first  degree  on  his  plea  of  guilty  thereto, 
Idaho's  statutes  require  that  he  be  sentenced  to 
death,  which  Judge  Wood  did.  At  the  same  time 
the  Court  recommended  in  the  strongest  terms 
that  the  Idaho  State  Board  of  Pardons  remit  the 
death  penalty.  For  its  recommendation  that 
mercy  be  extended  to  Orchard  the  Court  gave  two 
reasons  (not  to  call  them  excuses). 

One  was  that  Orchard  should  not  be  executed 
by  the  State  of  Idaho  because  his  testimony  might 
be  wanted  in  the  courts  of  Colorado,  should  that 


Milwaukee  Social  Democratic  Herald,  April,  1908. 


OUR  "IMPARTIAL"  JUDICIARY       89 

State  make  further  efforts  to  convict  members  or 
officials  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners  of 
the  crimes  charged  against  them  by  the  powers 
that  be  in  Colorado  and  in  the  Mine  Owners' 
Association. 

A  further  reason  given  by  the  Hon.  Judge  Wood 
why  the  Hon.  Harry  Orchard  should  not  pay  the 
statute  penalty  for  the  honorable  murders  to  which 
the  right  honorable  gentleman,  the  prisoner  at  the 
bar,  had  made  most  honorable  confession,  was  that 
his  testimony  before  the  juries  which  tried  Hay- 
wood  and  Pettibone  was  TRUE.  In  other  words, 
Judge  Wood  declares  that  Moyer,  Haywood  and 
Pettibone  are  guilty  of  a  series  of  murders  most 
foul. 

In  a  State  whose  every  judicial  and  executive 
official  was  an  economic  and  political  enemy,  the 
prosecution  (read  persecution,  with  murderous 
purpose),  having  indicted  and  charged  him  with 
the  most  infamous  crimes,  was  unable  to  find 
enough  evidence  on  which  to  call  Charles  H. 
Moyer  to  trial. 

But  Hon.  Judge  Wood,  who  would  gladly  have 
presided  at  such  trial  (0  impartial  Judge!),  says 
Charles  H.  Moyer  is  guilty. 

In  a  State  whose  every  judicial  and  executive 
official  was  an  economic  and  political  enemy,  with 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  dirty  dollars  at  their 


90  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

disposal,  with  scores  of  dirty  detectives  proud  of 
the  dirty  work  they  had  already  done,  and  anxious 
to  do  more  (for  more  dollars),  the  prosecution 
brought  Haywood  and  Pettibone  to  trial  before 
two  different  juries. 

Neither  jury  was  fair. 

Neither  jury  was  disinterested. 

On  each  jury  were  men  who  declared  they  were 
prejudiced  against  the  defendant. 

Yet  an  unfair  and  prejudiced  jury  did  not  find 
Haywood  guilty. 

An  unfair  and  prejudiced  jury  did  not  find  Pet- 
tibone guilty. 

Neither  did  either  of  those  juries  fail  to  agree 
upon  a  verdict. 

Out  of  twenty-four  men  on  those  juries,  not  one 
was  willing  to  hold  out  and  insist  on  his  belief  in 
the  guilt  of  the  defendant,  even  to  the  extent  of 
causing  a  disagreement  of  the  jury. 

Twelve  men  on  Haywood's  jury  declared  him 
"Not  Guilty." 

Twelve  men  on  Pettibone's  jury  declared  him 
"Not  Guilty." 

Now  comes  Hon.  Judge  Wood,  who  presided  at 
the  trial  of  each  of  these  men ;  Hon.  Judge  Wood, 
who  heard  the  jury  in  each  of  these  cases  declare 
the  defendant  "Not  Guilty" ;  that  same  Mr.  Fre- 
mont Wood  who  as  Judge  is  supposed  to  be  and  is 


OUR  "IMPARTIAL"  JUDICIARY       91 

under  oath  to  be  impartial  and  disinterested — that 
Hon.  Judge  Wood,  asking  mercy  for  the  self-con- 
fessed murderer  of  nearly  a  score  of  men,  declares 
to  the  world  that  Moyer,  Haywood  and  Pettibone 
are  guilty  of  all  the  crimes  Orchard  charged 
against  them. 

The  juries  that  tried  Haywood  and  Pettibone 
did  not  require  the  prosecution  to  prove  their 
guilt.  They  were  tried  by  prejudiced  juries — 
juries  that  required  them  to  prove  their  innocence. 
They  did  prove  their  innocence.  Those  juries  de- 
clared they  were  "Not  Guilty." 

Mindless  of  the  evidence,  regardless  of  the  ver- 
dicts of  acquittal,  reckless  of  his  judicial  position, 
Hon.  Judge  Wood,  pleading  in  behalf  of  Hon. 
Harry  Orchard,  declares  that  Moyer,  Haywood 
and  Pettibone,  who  have  been  acquitted,  are  guilty 
of  a  long  procession  of  foul  and  deadly  crimes. 

Learned  Judge. 

Impartial  Judge. 

Upright  Judge. 

Roosevelt,  chief  executive  of  the  nation,  practi- 
cally pronounced  these  men  guilty  before  trial! 

Hon.  Wood,  presiding  magistrate  at  their  trial, 
declares  them  guilty  AFTER  ACQUITTAL! 

Governor  McDonald  of  Colorado  and  Governor 
Gooding  of  Idaho,  the  chief  magistrates  of  two 
States,  and  eight  out  of  nine  Justices  of  the  Su- 


92  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  declared  that 
stealing  men  and  taking  them  from  the  State  of 
their  residence  without  an  opportunity  to  appeal 
to  the  courts  was  legal  and  due  process  of  law. 

Workingmen  of  America,  what  think  you  of  the 
courts  of  your  masters  ?  What  of  your  chances  of 
justice  when  you  find  yourselves  involved  in  them  ? 

How  would  you  like  to  be  tried  before  a  judge 
who,  on  the  word  of  a  murderer  and  a  monster, 
declared  men  guilty  after  a  jury  had  declared  they 
were  not  guilty? 

When  an  owner  and  master  charged  a  slave  with 
an  offense,  the  slave  had  already  been  found  guilty, 
because  his  master  was  his  judge. 

So,  American  workingmen,  when  capitalists 
charge  you  with  crime,  you  have  already  been 
judged  and  found  guilty  without  trial  because 
you  workingmen  are  compelled  to  plead  in  the 
capitalists'  court — your  employer's  court,  your 
master's  court. 

In  those  rare  cases  where,  notwithstanding  a 
class-prejudiced  judge,  the  workingman  can  wrest 
a  verdict  of  acquittal  from  a  jury  of  his  enemies, 
thereby  saving  his  neck  from  the  hangman's  noose, 
the  capitalists'  judge  on  the  bench  will  proceed  to 
gibbet  his  character  and  declare  him  "Guilty,"  de- 
spite a  verdict  of  "Not  Guilty." 

As  to  Hon.  Judge  Wood's  desire  to  save  Hon. 


OUR  "IMPARTIAL"  JUDICIARY       93 

Harry  Orchard  from  the  gallows,  no  Socialist  will 
complain.  We  do  not  believe  in  capital  punish- 
ment, and  the  life  even  of  an  Orchard  is  sacred. 
But  because  we  would  not  execute  a  murderer  it 
does  not  follow  that  we  would  not  restrain  him 
from  the  commission  of  further  murders.  In  this 
case,  however,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that 
one  of  the  strongest  motives  for  saving  Orchard 
from  paying  the  death  penalty  for  his  murderous 
crimes  is  that  he  may  commit  still  further  mur- 
ders— using  the  courts  of  so-called  justice  for  his 
purpose,  bearing  false  witness  therein  against  in- 
nocent men,  to  the  end  that  those  innocent  men 
may  swing  from  a  scaffold  for  crimes  which  they 
did  not  commit,  but  which  were  planned  and  exe- 
cuted by  Orchard  and  his  defenders. 

Workingmen  of  America,  you  have  to  destroy 
capitalism  or  capitalism  will  destroy  .you. 


Since  the  above  was  published,  Steve  Adams,  an- 
other member  of  the  Western  Federation  of  Miners, 
was  again  tried  and  acquitted.  Also,  there  have  Deen 
numerous  court  decisions  handed  down  against  organ- 
ized labor.  It  is  pitiful  to  see  workingmen  looking 
for  justice  in  the  courts  of  their  employers,  it  is  true 
that  sometimes  (at  long  intervals)  a  court  renders  a 
decision  seemingly  in  the  interest  of  the  workingman. 
But  careful  study  will  generally  show  either  that  the 
decision  is  on  a  law  that  is  unimportant  or  that  it 
will  not  be  enforced. 


His  Dignified  Nobs* 

FEEE  workman,  tread  softly.  Look  solemn. 
Wear  a  reverent  aspect.  Think  inwardly, 
and  outwardly  appear  subservient,  abject. 
We  approach  the  holy  of  holies.  We  are  at  the 
threshold  of  a  court  of  justice! 

Great  men,  who  get  paid  for  it,  will  tell  you 
that  this  is  the  bulwark  and  the  citadel  of  Your 
liberties.  Whatever  else  is  wrong  in  this  land  of 
the  free,  the  courts  are  pure,  unimpeachable — so 
They  say,  the  great  ones  of  the  earth.  Some 
things  in  this  country  may  not  be  exactly  right 
(it  is  too  hard  and  harsh  to  say  that  they  are 
wrong);  but  there  is  one  thing  in  which  All  can 
have,  must  have,  and  do  have,  confidence — Our 
judiciary.  Let  no  sacrilegious  hand  touch  the 
bench. 

There  is  the  Suprtme  Court.  That  is  the  Su- 
preme Justice— not  the  Supreme  Being — but  the 
Supreme  Justice  of  this  Supreme  Court. 

Look  well  at  him.    Note  his  dignity.    Also  his 


*  First  Printed  in  New  York  Worker,  Sept,  8,  1901. 


HIS  DIGNIFIED  NOBS  95 

dyspepsia.  See  how  great  he  is;  how  wonderful 
it  is  that  such  a  man  is  not  a  thousand  feet  high. 
How  can  so  much  greatness  be  contained  in  so 
sm*,ll  a  compass?  Again,  note  his  dignity,  and 
hii  gown.  Let  a  feeling  of  awe  come  over  you. 
Compared  with  him,  think  what  a  mere  nothing 
you  are  in  this  world.  Again  and  again,  note  his 
dignity,  and  never  forget  that  his  dignified  nobs 
has  a  nose — a  little  purple,  mayhap,  but  a  real 
hose,  nevertheless.  Wonderful  being. 

What  a  great  man  is  he. 

Some  farmer  had  to  plow  the  land,  sow  the 
teed,  harvest  the  wheat;  some  miller  grind  the 
wheat  into  flour;  some  baker  make  the  flour  into 
bread;  some  boy  deliver  the  bread  at  the  house; 
some  maid  servant  put  the  bread  on  the  table — 
and  then  the  judge  will  eat;  with  dignity.  Some 
miner  will  dig  the  coal;  engineers,  brakemen,  con- 
ductors will  transport  the  coal,  a  man  servant  will 
put  the  coal  in  the  stove  and  make  a  fire — and 
the  judge  will  be  warmed,  with  dignity.  The 
rag-picker  will  send  his  rags  to  the  paper  mill, 
where  they  will  be  made  into  paper;  the  printer 
will  set  the  type;  the  pressman  will  take  the  type 
from  the  printer,  the  paper  from  the  papermaker, 
the  press  from  the  machinist  and  print  words  on 
the  blank  paper,  which  binders  will  make  into  a 
book — and  the  judge  will  sit  by  His  fire  in  His 


96  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

upholstered  chair,  reading  His  book,  taking  His 
toast  and  tea  and  drinking  His  wine,  all  with  due 
dignity. 

And  you  people  who  made  the  puppet  bow 
down. 

Shall  creators  worship  their  creation  ? 

Note  the  wisdom  of  his  nibs.  You  people  who 
made  him  have  taken  pains  enough  with  him; 
you  have  not  spared  expense.  On  inspection  of 
the  job,  or  rather  the  job-lot,  what  do  you  think 
of  it? 

Don't  you  see  that  in  this  day  of  shams  the 
judge  is  the  worst  sham  of  the  lot?  Do  you 
imagine  he  is  there  to  do  justice?  Not  so.  He 
is  there,  now  as  aforetime,  to  Pretend  to  do  jus- 
tice, but  in  reality  to  give  you  workingmen  all  the 
worst  of  it.  All  his  learning  is  used,  not  to  en- 
lighten the  cause  or  parties  to  a  controversy,  but 
to  make  you  workingmen  think  you  are  getting  a 
"fair  show."  You  get  nothing  of  the  kind.  You 
get  learned  phrases  from  his  nibs,  and  the  capi- 
talist gets  the  decision. 

Do  you  imagine  you  workingmen  are  not  com- 
petent to  sit  on  the  bench?  When  you  go  into 
court  what  do  you  most  desire — a  throw-down 
ornamented  with  the  choicest  literary  finish,  or  a 
decision  that  you  win?  You  want  a  decision,  of 
course,  and  when  you  elect  men  whose  interests 


HIS  DIGNIFIED  NOBS  97 

are  your  interests,  you  will  get  a  decision  in  your 
favor — not  before.  Obey  the  laws  and  the  de- 
cisions of  the  judges,  of  course ;  but  as  to  respect- 
ing them — phew,  they  stink! 


Your  Uncle  is  Dead* 

AFTER  an  existence  (it  could  not  be  called 
a  "life")  of  ninety  years,  after  having 
"made"  ninety  million  dollars,  Russell 
Sage  is  dead.  Dead  and  buried  in  a  steel  coffin 
and  in  a  steel  vault,  equipped  with  electric  burglar 
alarms  and  other  devices  to  safeguard  his  withered 
body  from  the  attempts  of  those  who  might  have 
designs  upon  it.  Of  course,  no  one  wants  his 
body  for  its  own  sake.  But  there  are  those  who 
would  like  to  steal  it  and  use  it  as  a  means  to 
extort  from  his  widow  a  ransom  for  its  return. 

Sage  on  his  own  account  has  passed  the  point 
of  arousing  acute  human  interest.  Not  so  the 
ninety  million  dollars  he  has  left  behind.  They 
are  very  interesting  to  the  widow  and  to  all  those 
who  for  any  reason  "have  hopes." 

The  old  man  left  to  charity — nothing.  It  is 
said  that  the  widow  will  give  to  charity.  Twenty- 
six  nieces  and  nephews  are  to  get  $25,000  each. 
This  is  to  be  denied  them  if  they  make  any  effort 
to  "break  the  will." 

There  are  those  who  harshly  criticize  the  old 


*Rrst   published  in  New   York   Worker,    August 
4,  1906. 


YOUE  UNCLE  IS  DEAD  99 

man  because  he  made  no  bequests  to  schools,  col- 
leges, hospitals,  or  other  regular  objects  of  ortho- 
dox charity.  The  criticism  is  undeserved.  Pro- 
vided he  work  no  injury  to  another,  the  question 
is  not  what  a  man  DOES  with,  his  money. 

The  real  question  is,  HOW  DID  HE  GET  IT  ? 

How  did  Kussell  Sage  get  his  ninety  millions? 
That  is  the  question  to  be  asked  after  his  death, 
and  it  is  the  question  that  should  have  been 
asked,  and  answered,  while  he  was  alive. 

When  a  boy,  Sage  worked  in  a  grocery  store  for 
his  board  and  $12  a  month.  It  is  clearly  to  be 
seen  that  he  never  got  ninety  millions  in  that 
way.  Later  he  had  his  wages  raised,  and  received 
the  sum  of  $4  a  week  and  board.  But  even  his 
long  "life"  of  ninety  years  was  not  long  enough 
to  get  ninety  millions  in  that  way,  even  for  a  man 
as  "industrious"  and  "thrifty"  as  Eussell  Sage. 

Where  and  how  did  he  get  it?  He  became  a 
horse  trader,  but  sharp  as  he  was,  Sage  never  got 
ninety  millions  trading  horses.  He  went  to  Con- 
gress, but  that  was  many  years  ago,  before  the 
days  of  the  immense  corporations  of  the  present, 
and  while  he  had  a  wonderful  eye  for  the  main 
chance,  Sage  never  could  have  got  ninety  millions 
in  Congress — though  in  our  present  day  there  be 
those  (Senator  Bailey,  for  instance)  who  may 
crowd  the  ninety-million-dollar  mark  if  they  can 


100  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE ! 

remain  in  Congress  till  they  are  as  old  as  Sage  at 
his  death. 

Where  and  how  did  he  get  it? 

Mr.  Workingman,  Mr.  Sage  "got"  his  ninety 
millions  hy  robbing  you.  A  man  may  become 
the  possessor  of  wealth  in  one  of  three  ways — it 
may  be  given  him,  he  may  steal  it,  or  he  may 
labor  and  produce  it.  Away  back  in  those  days  of 
$12  a  month  Sage  labored  and  produced  wealth. 
That  was  these  many  years  agone.  He  only  began 
to  get  wealth  of  consequence  when  he  left  the 
grocery  store  and  took  to  the  robbers'  highway 
of  high  finance. 

He  "invested"  his  means.  He  shaved  notes. 
He  sold  money.  He  became  the  owner  of  rail- 
ways— and  robbed  the  men  whose  labor  produced 
and  operated  them.  When  he  shaved  notes  and 
sold  money  "on  the  Street"  he  robbed  a  robber 
who  had  already  robbed  a  wealth  producer — a 
worker. 

When  he  became  the  OWNER  of  street  cars 
and  railways  he  became  the  MASTER  of  the  men 
who  were  FORCED  to  work  on  those  roads.  We 
say  FORCED  to  work  on  those  roads. 

FORCED  to  work  for  Russell  Sage  as  long  as 
he  lived — and  he  lived  a  long  time.  And  now 
that  he  is  dead  there  is  to  be  no  change.  They 
will  still  be  FORCED  to  work  on  the  same  old 


YOUE  UNCLE  IS  DEAD  101 

roads.  It  is  of  no  consequence  whether  the  widow 
becomes  the  owner,  or  the  twenty-six  nephews  and 
nieces  become  the  owners.  No  difference  will  it 
make  if  his  railways  are  given  to  charity  and  the 
best  possible  of  benevolent  societies  becomes  the 
owner.  Still  those  men  whose  labor  constructed 
and  operates  them  will  be  FOKCED  to  work  there, 
and  while  they  work  there  they  will  be  robbed. 

Why  don't  those  workers  quit  ? 

If  they  quit  they'll  starve — that's  why. 

Why  do  they  submit  to  work  under  conditions 
where  they  are  robbed? 

Because  there  are  thousands  of  other  men  who 
are  starving  because  they  have  no  chance  to  work 
and  be  robbed — that's  why. 

When  an  old  chattel  slave  owner  died  his  will 
sometimes  freed  his  slaves.  No  will  of  the  owner 
of  wage  slaves  can  do  that.  When  he  dies  his 
property  goes  to  another — and  that  other  by 
owning  that  property  becomes  the  master  of  its 
slaves.  The  serf  sticks  to  the  soil,  the  wage-slave 
sticks  to  the  job.  Who  owns  the  means  of  pro- 
duction owns  the  workers  who  use  them. 

What  can  be  done?  One  thing,  and  only  one 
thing.  Take  the  railways  and  all  other  means  for 
the  production  of  wealth  and  make  them  the  col- 
lective property  of  all  the  people.  That  would  be 
bad  for  the  Kussell  Sages.  To  be  sure.  But  it 


102  FIGHT  FOB  YOUR  LIFE! 

would  be  good  for  the  thousands  of  wage  slaves 
whose  robbery  enriched  him,  and  out  of  whose 
poverty  was  coined  his  ninety  million  dollars. 


I.  Where  Are  We?* 

SEE  where  we  are  to-day. 
When  darkness  comes  to-night,  you  strike 
a  match ;  and  in  striking  that  match  you  pay 
tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to  Morgan  and  Uould 
and  Rockefeller  and  the  Match  Trust. 

The  next  thing  you  do  is  to  wind  up  your  little 
alarm  clock,  so  that  you  will  be  sure  to  get  up 
bright  and  early  to-morrow  morning  and  not  be 
late  to  work  and  get  docked;  and  when  you  wind 
up  that  alarm  clock  you  pay  tribute  in  the  form 
of  profit  to  Morgan  and  the  Ansonia  or  Ingersoll 
Clock  Trust. 

Well,  morning  comes.  Your  wife,  if  you  have 
the  luxury  of  such  companionship,  gets  up  a  half 
hour  earlier  than  you  to  prepare  breakfast. 

If  she  lights  a  coal  fire,  every  moment  that  it 
burns  you  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to 
Morgan  and  Baer  and  the  Coal  Trust.  Should 
she  light  an  oil  or  gas  fire,  every  moment  that  it 
burns  you  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to 
Morgan  and  Rockefeller  and  the  Oil  or  Gas 
Trust. 


*  From  lecture,  "Socialism  the  Hope  of  the  World," 
1903. 


104  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

Next  the  wife  will  place  a  little  tin  pot  on  the 
stove,  and  you  will  pay  tribute  to  Morgan  and 
the  Tin  Plate  Trust. 

She  places  a  little  coffee  in  the  little  pot,  and 
you  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to  Morgan 
and  Arbuckle  and  the  Coffee  Trust ;  or,  if  she  puts 
tea  in  the  pot,  you  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of 
profit  to  Sir  Tommy  Lipton  and  the  Tea  Trust. 

And  before  drinking  that  trust  tea  or  trust 
coffee  made  in  the  little  trust  pot,  you  put  a  lit- 
tle sugar  in,  and  for  that  sweetening  you  pay 
tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to  Morgan  and  Have- 
meyer  and  the  Sugar  Trust. 

Well,  likely  as  not,  that  drink  of  trust  tea  or 
coffee  will  make  you  sick.  If  so,  you  send  for  a 
trust  physician.  He  comes,  gives  you  a  prescrip- 
tion (for  a  consideration),  you  send  it  to  the 
drug  store  to  be  filled,  and  when  you  pay  for  that 
prescription  yoi1  pay  tribute  in  the  form  of  profit 
to  Morgan  and  Park,  Davis  &  Co.,  or  to  Morgan 
and  the  Potter  Drug  &  Chemical  Trust. 

Then  it  is  easily  possible  that  that  dose  of 
Trust  medicine  may  kill  you.  If  it  does,  your 
body  will  probably  be  placed  in  a  coffin  made  by 
some  casket  company  which  Mr.  Morgan  owns. 
But  it  does  not  stop  there.  When  your  relatives, 
if  they  have  money  enough,  go  to  buy  you  a  grave 
they  will  no  doubt  discover  that  Mr.  Morgan  is 


WHEEE  AEE  WE?  105 

interested  in  more  than  one  cemetery,  and  you 
who  have  lived  all  your  life  working  for  Morgan 
will  be  placed  in  Morgan's  coffin  and  buried  in 
Morgan's  cemetery. 

Nor  does  it  stop  even  there.  After  you  are 
dead  and  buried,  let  us  hope  that  your  enfran- 
chised spirit  will  go  up  and  look  for  admission 
through  the  pearly  gates;  but  if  so,  I  very  much 
fear  that  old  St.  Peter  will  meet  you  there,  reach 
forth  his  hand,  and  ask  you  for  a  letter  of  recom- 
mendation from  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  before  you 
can  enter  Heaven. 

And  even  this  may  not  be  the  worst.  Possibly 
you  may  have  been  a  very  wicked  man,  and  failed 
to  do  penance  for  your  sins,  and  instead  of  going 
up  above  you  may  go  down  below,  in  which  case 
I  feel  confident  you  will  find  that  Hell  is  all  Mor- 
gan's— and  I'm  not  sorry  for  it. 

I  can,  however,  with  safety  venture  the  predic- 
tion that  before  Morgan  is  in  Hell  for  ninety 
days  he  will  organize  a  Trust  down  there,  and 
freeze  the  Devil  off  his  own  fire. 

See  where  we  are  to-day. 

This  illustration  is  not  extreme. 

Mr.  Morgan  is  a  director  or  trustee  in  scores 
of  different  corporations  and  he  holds  stocks  in 
hundreds  of  others,  while  as  a  bondholder  and 
banker  he  has  an  interest  (often  a  controlling  one) 


106  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE! 

in  yet  other  scores  and  hundreds.  I  want  you  to 
see  by  this  illustration  that  neither  you  nor  your 
wife  can  spend  a  nickel,  a  dime,  or  a  dollar  with- 
out paying  tribute  in  the  form  of  profit  to  this 
trust,  that  trust  and  the  other  trust,  and  while 
these  corporations  may  be  separate  legal  entities, 
they  are  all  owned  or  controlled  by  practically  the 
same  little  group  of  men,  with  a  master  captain  of 
industry  and  finance  working  his  will  with  each. 

This,  however,  is  but  one  side,  and  the  bright- 
est side,  of  the  picture. 

Not  only  must  you  spend  your  wages  with  Mor- 
gan, but  if  you  work  on  a  railway  you  must  work 
for  Morgan  and  Vanderbilt  and  Gould;  if  you 
work  at  coal  mining,  you  must  work  for  Morgan 
and  Baer;  if  you  work  in  the  oil  or  gas  industry, 
you  must  work  for  Morgan  and  Rockefeller;  if 
you  work  in  the  iron  or  steel  industry,  you  work 
for  Morgan  and  Carnegie;  if  you  work  in  cop- 
per or  the  precious  metals,  you  work  for  Morgan 
and  Rockefeller  and  Clark  and  Heinze. 

In  my  illustration  to-day  I  have  pointed  out 
how  you  are  exploited  by  monopoly  in  spending 
your  money. 

You  have  only  been  robbed  of  what  you  had. 

You  can  scarcely  believe  me  when  I  tell  you 
that  this  robbery  that  you  see  so  plainly  is  of  lit- 
tle real  importance. 


WHERE  ARE  WE?  107 

The  GREAT  robbing  of  the  working  class  is 
accomplished  by  taking  from  them  what  they 
haven't  got. 

It,  no  doubt,  seems  strange  to  you,  Mr.  Work- 
ingman,  to  be  told  that  c,  penniless,  propertyless, 
naked  man  can  be  robbed,  and  that  the  robbers  can 
get  rich  off  the  spoils  of  him.  But  it  is  true.  It 
can  be  done.  It  is  done. 

What's  more,  it's  the  payingest  kind  of  robbery 
that  ever  was. 

And  the  safest — so  far. 

How's  the  game  worked? 

To  know  that  you  must  read  the  next  story, 
"How  to  Rob  a  Man  Who  Is  Broke." 


II.  How  to  Rob   a  Man  Who 
Is  Broke 

HOW  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 
How  to  coin  wealth  out  of  penury. 
How  to  get  riches  out  of  paupers. 

These  things  are  not  impossible,  nor  even  diffi- 
cult. They  are  not  even  rare.  They  are  every- 
day occurrences.  They  are  habit,  custom.  They 
are  almost  the  universal  rule.  So  common  they 
do  not  excite  comment  in  themselves.  It  is  the 
correct  statement  of  them  that  is  unusual. 

Ordinarily  they  appear  in  the  form  of  "busi- 
ness," "finance,"  "industry/'  "commerce,"  and  the 
like,  and  are  regarded  as  quite  the  thing,  and 
quite  the  right  thing  as  a  matter  of  course. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

Captain  Kidd,  Jack  Sheppard,  Dick  Turpin  and 
Jesse  James  were  able  men  and  truly  great  rob- 
bers. But  that  trick  was  beyond  their  powers. 
Their  notion  of  robbery  was,  first  of  all,  to  find 
a  man  who  had  the  coin.  With  all  their  craft  and 
courage,  they  never  were  equal  to  the  task  of  get- 
ting wealth  from  a  man  who  had  no  wealth. 

That  is  the  "business"  of  the  modern  Captains 
of  Industry.  And  so  rich  are  their  rewards  that 


HOW  TO  EOB  A  MAN  109 

the  old  knights  of  the  road,  chevaliers  de  1'in- 
dustrie,  safe-crackers.,  counterfeiters  and  pirates  of 
the  past  would  ache  in  their  graves  could  they  but 
dream  of  the  capitalist's  swag. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

A  man  who  is  broke  in  time  becomes  hungry, 
and  must  eat  or  perish.  He  possibly  has  five 
courses  open  to  him — he  can  beg,  borrow,  steal, 
work  or  starve. 

If  he  is  caught  begging,  he  is  thrown  into  jail ; 
besides,  he  won't  get  much,  anyway;  regardless  of 
Supreme  Courts,  and  the  Mendicants'  Merger, 
there  are  beggars  in  plenty,  and  plenty  of  compe- 
tition between  them. 

If  the  man  who  is  broke  and  hungry  is  caught 
stealing,  he  is  thrown  into  jail;  besides,  stealing 
isn't  what  it  used  to  be;  Eockefeller  will  soon 
have  most  everything  worth  stealing.  Over  in  a 
New  Jersey  town  three  men  worked  hard  all  night 
cracking  a  safe  and  got — twelve  cents.  Needless 
to  remark  that  Mr.  Eockefeller  was  not  one  of  the 
three  men.  Mr.  Eockefeller  does  not  work  nights. 
Besides,  he  knows  that  sooner  or  later  he'll  get 
the  twelve  cents,  anyway. 

A  man  who  is  broke  and  hungry  can  borrow  all 
he  wants — on  good  security. 

A  man  who  is  broke  and  hungry  can  starve — 
but  he  must  not  be  caught  at  it  in  New  York 


110  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE ! 

State.  Suicide  may  or  may  not  be  a  sin,  but  the 
statutes  of  the  Empire  State  make  it  a  crime  pun- 
ishable by  imprisonment. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

There  is  just  one  door  of  hope  that  may  or 
may  not  be  open  to  the  man  who  is  broke — 
work. 

There  is  nothing  bad  about  work.  It's  the  very 
thing,  not  only  for  the  man  who  is  broke,  but  for 
every  man  who  would  eat.  "In  the  sweat  of  thy 
face  shalt  thou  eat  bread/'  And  if  you  eat  bread 
and  do  not  work,  then  you  eat  it  in  the  sweat  of 
some  other  man's  face.  Work,  by  all  means,  for 
the  penniless  man. 

But  to  work,  a  man  must  have  land  to  stand  on. 
He  must  have  unfinished  or  raw  material  to  work 
upon.  He  must  have  tools,  means  of  production, 
to  work  with.  Our  man  who  is  broke  has  none 
of  these  things — if  he  had  he  would  not  be  broke. 
Without  these  things  he  cannot  live  except  in  the 
asylum  or  the  jail. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

To  save  himself  from  death,  asylum  or  jail,  the 
man  who  is  broke  must  have  work.  To  work  he 
must  have  means  of  production. 

Who  OWNS  the  means  of  production? 

The  capitalist.    The  captain  of  industry. 

Who  USES  the  means  of  production  ? 


HOW  TO  ROB  A  MAN  111 

Workingmen. 

So  at  last  our  man  who  is  broke  stands,  hat  in 
hand,  face  to  face  with  the  man  who  owns  the 
means  of  production.  The  fear  of  the  prison,  the 
asylum  and  starvation  have  driven  that  penniless 
man  along  the  path  which  led  to  the  employment 
office  of  that  owner  of  the  means  of  production 
with  a  force  as  irresistible  as  that  which  drives  the 
earth  onward  in  its  orbit.  To  be  at  all,  he  must 
be  there.  To  continue  to  be,  he  must  gain  access 
to  the  means  of  production. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

There  stand  face  to  face  what  legal  fiction  calls 
two  free  men.  One  free  man  the  OWNER  of  the 
means  of  production,  with  money  in  his  purse  and 
money  in  the  bank,  with  a  comfortable  and  luxuri- 
ous home,  and  in  no  hurry.  The  other  free  man 
homeless,  penniless,  hungry,  his  only  chance  of 
life  dependent  on  his  USE  of  the  other's  means  of 
production.  These  two  men  do  not  dicker,  and 
argue  and  haggle.  The  man  who  is  broke  does  not 
propose  to  buy  or  rent  means  of  production.  The 
FREE  contract  between  these  FREE  men  takes 
the  form  of  one  man  hiring  the  other  to  work  for 
him — by  the  day,  week  or  month. 

Suppose  that  our  man  who  is  broke  if  allowed 
to  use  the  means  of  production  can  create  new 
value  equal  to  $10  in  a  day's  work,  how  much  will 


FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE  ! 


his  wages  be  if  the  OWNER  of  the  means  of  pro- 
duction employs  him  ? 

Suppose  that  our  man  who  is  broke  can  create 
$20  of  new  value  by  a  day's  work,  how  much  will 
his  wages  be  ? 

Suppose  he  creates  $40  by  his  day's  work,  how 
much  will  his  wages  be? 

You  might  not  think  it,  but  his  wages  will  be 
about  the  same  whether  his  labor  produces  wealth 
to  the  value  of  $10  a  day,  $20  a  day,  or  $40  a  day. 

What  will  his  wages  be? 

Given  a  man  who  is  broke,  given  a  FREE 
laborer,  who  must  have  work  or  perish,  what  will 
he  work  for?  What  must  he  work  for? 

He  will  work  for  a  wage  sufficient  to  sustain  life. 

That  is  all  the  FREE  Captain  of  Industry  will 
offer,  and  that  the  FREE  laborer  must  take  or 
perish. 

Every  day  that  he  storks  for  wages  he  must  pro- 
duce wealth  of  a  value  GREATER  than  his  wages 
—  otherwise  he  is  discharged. 

The  only  purpose  of  the  OWNER  of  the  means 
of  production  is  to  have  workmen  USE  his  means 
of  production,  have  their  labor  create  a  value 
GREATER  than  their  wages,  and  himself  pocket 
the  DIFFERENCE  between  the  value  of  the 
wealth  their  labor  creates  and  the  portion  of  that 
value  returned  to  them  in  the  form  of  wages. 


HOW  TO  EOB  A  MAN  113 

That  DIFFEKENCE  the  Captain  of  Industry 
calls  PEOFIT. 

To  the  man  who  knows  that  Labor  of  brain 
and  brawn  produces  all  wealth,  it  is  easily  to  be 
seen  that  what  a  politician  or  a  confidence  man 
calls  "graft,"  what  a  gambler  calls  "velvet,"  what 
a  thief  calls  "swag,"  that  is  what  a  capitalist  calls 
"PROFIT."  It  is  simply  something  for  nothing. 
Wealth  without  equivalent.  That  is  all  Jesse 
James  got,  that  is  all  Cassie  Chadwick  wanted, 
that  is  all  the  Captain  of  Industry  is  after. 

That  PROFIT  for  the  capitalists  of  the  United 
States  amounts  to  fully  100  per  cent,  on  the 
amount  they  pay  in  wages,  probably  much  more. 
In  other  words,  for  every  dollar  in  value  that  the 
workman  creates  for  the  Captain  of  Industry,  Mr. 
Captain  gets  50  cents  in  profit  and  Mr.  FREE 
Workman  gets  50  cents. 

How  to  rob  a  man  who  is  broke. 

Simply  OWN"  as  your  private  property  the 
means  of  production  he  must  USE  or  perish. 

Not  only  can  you  rob  him,  but  you  can  do  BO 
with  SAFETY. 

You  need  not  even  go  out  and  look  for  him. 

Sit  in  your  office  and  he  will  come  to  you  as 
cattle  to  the  salt  lick,  and  beg  you  to  rob  him. 

And  you  shall  wax  mighty,  and  great,  and  be 
honored  among  men,  and  be  very  stiff-necked  and 


114  FIGHT  FOE  YOUR  LIFE ! 

hold  your  head  very  high,  for  a  time — just  about 
the  time  you  are  able  to  do  that  gracefully,  per- 
haps some  kind  friends  will  come  your  way  and 
stretch  your  neck  a  little,  and  raise  your  head  just 
one  little  notch  higher,  just  a  little  notch,  but  just 
enough. 

But  no.  All  that  is  of  the  past.  Nothing  like 
that  ever  to  be  again. 

Nothing  ever  to  be  again  except  this  continued 
story  of  robbing  the  man  who  is  broke — just  that 
to-day,  and  to-morrow,  and  forever  and  ever. 
Nothing  ever  to  be  in  all  time  except  robbing  him 
and  his  wife  and  children,  and  his  children's  chil- 
dren and  their  children — unless — 

Unless  that  man  and  his  brothers  learn  that  Labor 
of  brain  and  brawn  produces  ALL  wealth,  and  also 
learn  that  when  those  who  USE  the  means  of  pro- 
duction OWN  the  means  of  production  the  product 
of  Labor  will  be  theirs. 

How  shall  the  WORKERS  become  OWNERS 
of  the  means  of  production  ? 


The  Grand  Army 

IN  1892  for  the  first  time  the  Socialists  of  the 
United  States  entered  national  politics. 
They  nominated  Simon  Wing  for  President 
and  Charles  H.  Matchett  for  Vice-President,  and 
their  ticket  received  21,512  votes.  Sixteen  years 
later,  in  1908,  Eugene  V.  Debs  and  Ben  Han- 
ford,  Socialist  candidates  for  President  and  Vice- 
President,  received  420,464  votes.  IN" -SIXTEEN 
YEARS  THE  SOCIALIST  VOTE  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES  HAS  BEEN  INCREASED 
NINETEENFOLD. 

More  than  four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
men  voted  the  Socialist  ticket  in  1908.  We  all 
expected  there  would  he  more.  In  the  heat  of 
the  battle  we  forgot  how  great  was  the  cause  for 
which  the  battle  was  fought.  In  looking  for  a 
million  votes  we  forgot  how  much  it  takes  to 
make  a  Socialist  voter.  We  thought  a  million 
Socialists  meant  a  million  Socialist  voters. 

But  there  is  a  Grand  Army  of  420,464  Socialist 
voters  in  the  United  States. 

Four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  voters  who 
are  unafraid  of  Big  Stick  Roosevelt.  Who  are 
unawed  by  Big  Injunction  Bill  Taft.  Who  are 


116  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

unswayed  by  Big  Wind  Billy  Bryan.  Who  are 
undeceived  by  Big  Bunco  Billy  Hearst.  Who 
are  unmoved  by  Big  Bluffs  or  Big  Humbugs. 
Truly,  a  Grand  Army,  if  this  world  ever  saw  one. 

More  than  four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
voters  in  the  United  States  who  cannot  be  fooled 
by  Big  Booze,  Big  Booze  Fighters,  or  Big  Water 
Wagons.  More  than  four  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  voters  who  cannot  be  enslaved  by  the 
Big  Superstitions  of  the  Big  Stiffs  under  the 
graveyard's  sod,  or  the  more  dead  Big  Stuffs  who 
officer  our  great  universities.  Four  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  voters  who  cannot  be  humbugged 
by  the  Big  Lies  of  the  Big  Dailies.  Who  can- 
not be  bribed  by  Big  Boodle,  nor  be  bought  by 
Big  Business.  Who  cannot  be  cowed  by  the  Big 
Bullies  of  the  army,  nor  the  Big  Bludgeons  of 
the  police. 

Four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  men  who 
stand  erect  and  beard  the  Big  Beast  Capitalism 
in  his  own  domain.  Truly,  a  Grand  Army,  if 
this  world  has  ever  seen  one. 

FOUR  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY  THOU- 
SAND SOCIALIST  VOTERS.  And  that  is  less 
than  half  the  story  of  the  Grand  Army.  For  more 
than  six  hundred  thousand  others  would  have 
voted  the  Socialist  ticket  had  not  capitalist  laws 
deprived  them  of  the  ballot.  Few  of  the  two 


THE  GRAND  AEMY  117 

million  men  employed  in  the  building  trades  and 
by  the  railroads  are  allowed  to  vote.  The  rail- 
way men  cannot  leave  their  work  to  go  to  the 
polls  on  election  day.  The  men  of  the  building 
and  several  other  trades  are  always  on  the  move 
— "following  the  job."  They  are  unable  to  ac- 
quire a  "voting  residence."  Then,  millions  of 
black  workingmen  are  disfranchised  and  millions 
of  their  white  brothers  along  with  them  through- 
out the  South.  Still  other  millions  of  the  work- 
ers are  shut  off  from  the  exercise  of  all  electoral 
rights  by  poll  tax  and  other  property  qualifica- 
tions. When  I  say  the  number  of  men  in  the 
United  States  who  desired  to  vote  the  Socialist 
ticket,  but  were  prevented  by  unfair  election  laws, 
is  two  hundred  thousand  greater  than  the  number 
who  did  vote  the  Socialist  ticket,  I  am  well  with- 
in the  mark.  That  means  that  the  Grand  Army 
of  Socialist  men  in  this  country  numbers  420,464 
voters,  to  which  must  be  added  more  than  600,000 
others  who  were  legally  robbed  of  the  ballot.  So 
the  real  Grand  Army  numbers  a  million  men  at 
this  moment — not  a  man  less  than  ONE  MIL- 
LION. Truly,  a  Grand  Army,  if  this  world  is 
ever  to  see  one. 

To  this  Grand  Army  of  a  million  Socialists,  half 
of  whom  voted  the  Socialist  ticket  and  half  of 
whom  would  have  voted  the  Socialist  ticket  had 


118          FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

they  been  allowed  to  vote  at  all,  must  be  added 
not  less  than  one  million  men  who  to-day  are 
Socialists  in  every  way  but  one.  They  have  a 
fair  understanding  of  Socialism,  they  believe  in 
it  and  they  agree  with  it.  But  they  have  not  yet 
learned  Socialist  party  tactics — they  expect  to  "get 
something  now/'  or  live  in  the  hope  of  getting 
"half  a  loaf."  This  million  of  men  who  to-day  are 
Socialists,  but  do  not  vote  the  Socialist  ticket,  con- 
stitute the  first  reserve  of  the  Grand  Army.  Every 
day  sees  more  and  more  of  them  enlightened,  and 
as  their  hopes  of  better  things  from  the  old  parties 
are  doomed  to  disappointment,  they  will  of  neces- 
sity see  the  correctness  of  the  Socialist  party 
tactics  and  vote  the  Socialist  ticket. 

Some  of  these  Socialists  who  are  not  Socialist 
voters  can  get  their  education  only  in  the  painful 
school  of  experience.  Their  lessons  may  come  in 
the  form  of  a  strike  or  lock-out,  or  injunction. 
Some  will  learn  in  the  school  of  hard  times.  The 
red  flag  of  the  sheriff's  auctioneer  will  teach  some 
— sad  to  say.  Or  it  may  be  that  the  Big  Stick, 
the  militia  or  the  police  are  to  be  their  teachers. 
Others  will  learn  from  hearing  a  Socialist  speech 
or  reading  a  Socialist  leaflet  or  book.  But  in  any 
event  their  ultimate  destination  is  the  Socialist 
party. 

To  sum  up,  the  present  apparent  strength  of 


THE  GRAND  ARMY  119 


the  Socialist  movement  in  the  United  States  may 
be  stated  as  follows: 

Socialist  voters 420,464 

Socialists,   but   disfranchised 600,000 

Socialists,  but  do  not  vote  the  Social- 
ist ticket 1,000,000 

Socialist  women. .  ? 


Total    2,020,464 

This  is  a  very  conservative  statement  of  the 
Socialist  strength.  Unquestionably  it  is  greater, 
rather  than  less.  It  is  difficult  to  make  an  esti- 
mate of  the  strength  of  Socialism  among  women. 
But  it  is  considerable,  and  it  is  growing  rapidly. 

Notwithstanding  this  army  of  Socialists  and 
Socialist  voters,  we  did  not  elect  a  single  Con- 
gressman. But  we  will — and  that  soon.  Nor 
have  we  elected  Socialists  to  the  Legislature  in 
any  State  except  Wisconsin,  nor  to  the  Alder- 
manic  chambers  of  any  city  of  size  except  Mil- 
waukee. But  we  will — and  that  soon.  The 
growth  of  the  Socialist  Party  is  certain,  and 
small  gains  will  see  Socialists  in  Congress,  So- 
cialists in  the  Legislatures  of  many  States,  and 
in  the  city  halls  of  many  municipalities.  Not  only 
will  the  near  future  see  Socialists  in  our  legisla- 
tive bodies,  but  they  will  shortly  be  found  in 


120  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

executive  and  judicial  positions  as  well — judges, 
mayors  of  cities  and  governors  of  states. 

To-day  two  million  men  in  the  United  States 
are  Socialists.  They  constitute  the  Grand  Army. 
It  is  not  an  army  of  murder,  rapine  and  destruc- 
tion. It  is  a  Grand  Army  of  peace  and  progress, 
of  enlightenment  and  brotherhood.  It  is  an  army 
that  grows  with  every  hour  of  the  day.  It  is  an 
army  that  has  never  known  defeat  and  never  will. 
It  is  an  army  that  with  the  certainty  of  the  rising 
and  setting  of  the  sun  shall  march  with  resistless 
force  from  one  victory  to  another  till  every  man, 
woman  and  child  on  earth  shall  be  free. 

Truly,  a  Grand  Army,  if  this  world  ever  is  to 
see  one. 

Do  you  belong  to  that  Grand  Army,  reader? 

If  not,  why  not? 

No  man  has  ever  been  drafted  into  this  army. 

But  volunteers  are  always  wanted. 

Better  enlist,  reader. 


Fight  for  Your  Life ! 

YOU  Wage-Workers. 
You  who  must  be  Wage-Workers. 
You  who   cannot   live   except    as   Wage- 
Workers. 

Have  you  gotten  anything  from  reading  the  fore- 
going pages?  Have  you  learned  Why  you  are 
Wage-Workers  ?  And  Why  you  must  continue  to 
be  Wage- Workers  ? 

To  live  you  must  have  Food,  Clothing,  Shelter. 
You  Wage- Workers  differ  from  the  Wage- Payers 
chiefly  in  this — you  have  no  property.  You  Wage- 
Workers  have  just  enough  of  the  necessaries  of  life 
to  last  from  hour  to  hour,  from  day  to  day — from 
pay  day  to  pay  day. 

You  Wage- Workers  can  only  get  Food,  Clothing 
and  Shelter  by  paying  money  for  them.  And  you 
can  only  get  money  by  getting  Wages.  In  order 
to  get  Wages  you  must  get  a  job. 

So,  you  see,  it  stands  this  way  with  you : — 
Job  means  Wages; 
Wages  means  Money; 
Money  means  Food,  Clothing,  and  Shelter; 


122  FIGHT  FOR  YOUK  LIFE ! 

Food,  Clothing.,  and  Shelter  mean  Life. 

So,  you  see,  your 

JOB  IS  YOUR  LIFE. 

Not  always  do  you  have  a  job.  Then  you  have 
unfit  food,  unsanitary  shelter,  insufficient  clothing 
— or  none.  Sometimes  when  you  have  a  job  it  is 
at  such  low  wages  that  you  are  unable  to  supply 
yourself  and  family  with  proper  Food,  Clothing 
and  Shelter.  Of  course,  you  know  some  Wage- 
Workers  who  get  good  wages — sufficient  to  supply 
themselves  with  everything  needful.  But,  if  you 
will  look  around  carefully,  you  will  find  that  for 
every  Wage- Worker  who  gets  what  you  call  good 
wages  there  are  many  who  get  poor  wages,  and 
some  who  are  getting  no  wages — the  pitiful  starv- 
ing army  of  the  Unemployed. 

Pe  it  good  or  bad,  a  job  of  some  kind  you  must 
have,  for  Your  Job  Is  Your  Life. 

How  do  you  get  that  job,  my  fellow  Wage- 
Worker? 

YoU  get  it  from  the  Capitalists. 

You  get  it  from  the  men  who  own  the  means  of 
production. 

You  get  it  from  the  men  who  own  the  mines, 
mills,  railways,  stores,  factories,  lands,  buildings, 
tools,  machinery  and  workshops. 

Your  Job  Is  Your  Life,  my  fellow  Wage- 
Worker,  and  Your  Job  Is  Owned  by  the  Capitalist. 


FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE!  123 

That  means  that  Your  Life  Is  Owned  by  the 
Capitalist. 

The  man  who  owns  your  means  of  life  owns  you. 

You  Wage- Workers  cannot  live  without  a  job. 
The  Capitalist  owns  your  job.  Your  Job  Is  Your 
Life,  and  in  owning  your  job  the  Capitalist  Owns 
You,  fellow  Wage- Workers. 

Wage- Workers ! 

Would  you  Fight  for  Your  Life? 

Would  you  ? 

Fight  the  Capitalists  to  make  Yourselves  Owners 
of  Your  Jobs. 

Fight  the  Capitalists  to  make  Yourselves  Owners 
of  the  Means  of  Life. 

Fight  the  Capitalists  to  make  Yourselves  Own- 
ers of  the  Means  Necessary  to  Supply  Yourselves 
and  Families  with  Food,  Clothing  and  Shelter. 

Wage- Workers ! 

You  must  fight  the  Capitalist  Class  and  lick 
them. 

Your  life  depends  on  the  outcome  of  the  battle. 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

When  I  say  you  Wage-Workers  must  fight  the 
Capitalist  I  do  not  mean  that  you  are  to  gouge 
his  eye  out.  Or  that  you  are  to  knock  his  block 
off.  Nor  do  I  mean  that  you  are  to  organize  a 
dynamite  club.  Nor  shoulder  a  musket.  Nor  join 
the  militia. 


124  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

No. 

All  those  are  Capitalist  methods  of  battle. 

I  want  you  Wage- Workers  to  fight  the  Capitalist 
by  more  intelligent — and  more  powerful — methods. 

The  Capitalist  has  his  power  over  you,  the  Capi- 
talist owns  you,  the  Capitalist  owns  your  life  be- 
cause he  owns  the  tilings  necessary  to  your  life. 

The  Capitalist  owns  the  things  necessary  to  your 
life,  Wage-Workers,  because  the  laws  of  property 
allow  him  to  do  so. 

In  the  United  States,  you  Wage- Workers  with 
the  ballot  can  change  the  laws. 

You  Wage- Workers  can  so  change  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  that  a  Capitalist  can  no  more 
have  private  property  in  a  street  railway  than  he 
can  in  a  street. 

You  Wage- Workers  can  so  change  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  that  a  Capitalist  can  no  more 
have  private  property  in  land  than  he  can  have 
private  property  in  air. 

You  Wage- Workers  can  so  change  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  that  a  Capitalist  can  no  more 
have  private  property  in  a  mill,  mine,  store  or  fac- 
tory than  he  can  have  private  property  in  a  public 
school  or  the  post  office  or  the  fire  department.- 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

Wage- Workers ! 

You  are  not  to  take  mine,  mill,  railway  and  fao- 


FIGHT  FOE  YOUE  LIFE !  125 

tory  from  the  Capitalist  as  his  private  property 
and  make  them  your  private  property.  You  are 
to  take  them  from  the  Capitalist  and  make  them 
the  common  property  of  all  the  people — that  in- 
cludes you,  and  that  includes  the  Capitalist.  But 
neither  you  nor  the  Capitalist  will  be  private  own- 
ers of  those  things. 

Fight  for  Your  Life  ! 

Wage- Workers !  You  must  make  this  fight,  and 
you  must  win  this  fight,  or  you  will  live  and  die  a 
slave.  Not  only  your  freedom,  but  your  very  life, 
depend  on  the  outcome  of  this  battle. 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

How? 

What  is  the  most  effective  method  by  which  you 
can  make  this  Fight  for  Your  Life  ? 

Wage- Workers !  Join  the  Socialist  Party.  Eead 
Socialist  books  and  papers  to  inform  yourself. 
Then  instruct  your  fellow  Wage- Workers,  and  get 
them  to  read  Socialist  books  and  papers  and  to 
join  the  Socialist  Party.  It  is  the  only  way. 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

Not  only  join  the  Socialist  Party.  Join  the 
trade  or  labor  union  of  your  craft.  If  you  already 
belong  to  a  union  get  all  your  fellow  workers  to 
join  your  union;  help  in  the  fight  for  better  pay 
and  shorter  hours.  The  Socialist  Party  carries  on 
the  fight  to  abolish  the  wage  system,  to  overthrow 


126  FIGHT  FOR  YOUR  LIFE ! 

the  slave  system,  and  make  the  workers  the  owners 
of  the  things  with  which  they  work. 

Join  the  Socialist  Party,  and  work  for  a  world 
of  free  men  and  free  women  among  free  men  and 
free  women. 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

Slow  work,  think  you  ? 

In  1892  the  Socialists  of  the  United  States  nom- 
inated a  Presidential  ticket  and  entered  the  field 
of  national  politics  for  the  first  time.  Their  can- 
didate received  20,512  votes.  Sixteen  years  later, 
in  1908,  the  Socialist  Party  candidate  for  Presi- 
dent received  420,464  voes. 

Slow  work?    What  would  you  call  fast  work? 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 

Wage- Workers,  join  this  great  movement  for  the 
emancipation  of  you  and  I  and  every  human  being 
on  the  face  of  this  earth. 

Join  now.  Share  the  burdens  of  the  battle  and 
share  the  glory  of  the  victory. 

Fight  for  Your  Life! 


FIGHT  FOR  YOUE  LIFE ! 


' ,  Header,  if  this  little  book  has  helped  you 
to  see  the  light,  and  if  you  think  it  might 
lie  of  service  in  helping  your  fellows  to  help  them- 
selves, see  that  they  have  a  copy.  There  are 
others,  and  will  be  more.  Do  something  in  this 
world  besides  getting  something  to  eat  and  drink. 
An  animal  gets  that.  Have  a  Cause.  Make  sac- 
rifices for  the  Cause  you  think  greatest  and  best. 
And  be  your  Sacrifices  never  so  great,  the  Cause 
will  do  more  for  you  than  all  that  you  can  ever 
do  for  it. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Due  Two  Weeks  fTom  Date  of 


JAN  0  5 


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